Earth's Protector
by Fallen Crest
Summary: Two years have passed since the Cell Games and since then, Gohan has become Earth's new protector. Along with his new role comes new adventures with new enemies and old enemies that come back to haunt Gohan in ways he never expected. Will Gohan be able to survive the craziness that is life for Z Warriors?
1. Ch1: Who is Ryazan?

**Disclaimer: I don't own Dragon Ball Z**

**Earth's Protector**

**Chapter 1: Who is Ryazan? **

Two years. That was how long ago it was that the Cell Games took place and that Goku died during them. Since the Cell Games, the Earth had been relatively peaceful. The only incident since it was with Bojack at the Intergalactic Tournament, but just like Cell, he was taken care of by the son of Goku, Gohan. The eldest half-saiyan had taken over his father's role as the protector of Earth.

And while his mother wanted him to stop fighting after the Cell Games, Gohan still kept up with it. He studied to keep her happy, but he was his father's son and despite not liking fights to the death, he did enjoy martial arts. So he liked being able to keep up with his training in his free time. The part he didn't like about keeping up with his training was that Vegeta. And this led to Vegeta hunting him down for spars. Over the years Vegeta wanting spars led to a very nice routine. It always included refuses, a game of world hide and seek, screaming, trees being uprooted, and then being locked in a GR with the angry prince for at least four hours. It might be faster to just join Vegeta for training willingly, but that would ruin the routine and Gohan could not allow that. He always found it hilarious. He liked being able to test how far he could take things with Vegeta. When he told that to Krillin, he was called suicidal.

Seriously, he was the suicidal one? Krillin was the one dating an android that tried to kill them all. Then again, Bulma married and had a kid with Vegeta, who also tried to kill them. Maybe there was something wrong with the Z fighters if they are dating/marrying the enemy.

The now thirteen year old half-saiyan sighed and stared up at the blue sky as he lazily floated through the air with his back facing the ground. He greatly enjoyed the peace that followed since Bojack. Ever since he was four, he has been training and fighting all these different threats. Since he started martial arts, he knew only how to use it to keep himself and his friends alive. Of course, now that peace had returned, he was able to practice it and just enjoy it which is how he liked it.

Though, maybe it was too peaceful. Perhaps it was because of his hectic childhood, that after almost two years of straight peace, he was starting to get bored of it. Life needed a bit of craziness, which was probably why he caused Vegeta so much grief. It livened things up. Peace was great, but so was a bit of chaos in life. It certainly made things more fun, and besides, the only real chaos he was causing was driving Vegeta insane. And he wasn't someone that scared Gohan…anymore. Vegeta certainly frightened him as a child.

And besides it wasn't really dangerous. Okay, it was dangerous, but he could handle Vegeta and Bulma could tame him so no destruction of the Earth was seen in the near future. It was the safest option in his opinion for some controlled chaos. Of course, no one else agreed with him about his game being safe, but not everyone could be satisfied.

Gohan suddenly stopped being so lazy and righted himself in the air and glared in the direction of West City. "Ah, damn, Vegeta is heading right towards me. Can't he ever give it a break?" He powered up and sped off in the opposite direction that took him towards Korin's Tower. He was missing Dende and Piccolo.

***DBZ***

"Hmm, this does not look good, not good at all." King Kai murmured to himself. Behind him, he heard the sounds of warriors fighting with each other, but paid them no mind. Nearby he could hear East, West, and South Kai singing a song mocking his death, but for once he didn't react to it at all. And to be honest, considering he's been dead for two years, one might think they would get bored of that by now!

"Oh, crap! King Kai, look out!"

King Kai didn't listen to the voice as he was concentrating on Earth so when he was hit in the back by a ki blast and sent flying forward into a picnic table, he was very annoyed, even more so when the other kais started laughing. With as much dignity as he could muster up, King Kai removed himself from the rubble of the destroyed table, stood up and turned around to glare at the sheepish looking Goku, who had paused in his spar with Pikkon.

"My bad." Goku said with a grin, rubbing the back of his head. "It got away from me."

"I swear Goku you cause me nothing but grief!" King Kai yelled at him. "Ever since I first trained you…" He trained off and scowled. "We don't have time for this."

Goku blinked in surprise as King Kai usually never stopped his tirade on him once he started. "Is something wrong?"

King Kai turned his back on him and went back to concentrating on Earth. "Yes, Earth is in trouble…again. You know, I thought since you were a trouble magnet that Earth would stop being in so much danger since you're dead, but now maybe I have to consider your son a trouble magnet too. I swear, nothing good comes from associating with you saiyans!"

"Does he mean Gohan?" Pikkon asked as he recalled Goku mentioning his son before.

Goku nodded. "Yeah, but I never considered Gohan a trouble magnet. Maybe a bit reckless and stubborn, but not really one to draw trouble to himself." He scratched the back of his head. "But he is strong so he should be able to handle whatever trouble is coming his way. Right, King Kai?"

When King Kai didn't immediately reply, Goku slowly started to feel horror fill him up. It was never a good sign when King Kai didn't agree right away. Gohan should be able to handle this, so why was King Kai not replying? He prepared Gohan to be strong enough to handle anything that would dare threaten the Earth.

Forgetting all pretenses of being relaxed, Goku adopted a very serious expression as he walked over to the North Kai. "King Kai, what is heading to Earth?" He demanded, surprising his friends, who stopped their own training to look at the serious Goku. The most serious they have ever seen him was when he was in the Otherworld tournament and fighting Pikkon. Since then, he has been relatively calm and relaxed, but still training very seriously.

"Ryazan is heading to your planet."

West Kai stopped laughing at the recent display of King Kai getting hit with a ki blast. "Did you say Ryazan?" He demanded as he walked over to North Kai. "He was just in my part of the galaxy a couple of months ago."

Pikkon looked over at him. "Who is Ryazan?"

"An immortal being and the last of his race." West Kai growled. "A long time ago his race was slaughtered by the Planet Trade Organization. He got blasted into space during the attack, and shortly after that, he landed on Namek."

Goku's eyes narrowed. "He used the dragon balls there to gain immortality? The Namekians never mentioned anyone using them for such a reason."

"Goku, you remember Lord Slug, right? You killed him a few years ago." King Kai said with a frown, still concentrating on Earth. "He was a Namekian, but was banished from the planet along with the other Super Nameks."

Goku nodded his head. "I remember the story, but what does it have to do Ryazan?"

"Ryazan arrived on Namek shortly before the Super Nameks were banished. In fact, he helped hold off the Super Nameks while the other Namekians worked on gathering all the Dragon Balls in one location to summon Porunga to wish them away from Namek. To thank him for his help, they allowed him to use a wish. From my understanding, he originally tried to wish for his race's revival, but as you learned, Porunga cannot bring more than one person back at a time, so he instead used the wish for immortality." King Kai explained. "He wanted to stay alive so he could work on becoming stronger to destroy the Planet Trade Organization for revenge for what they did to his planet."

"That doesn't sound evil. That sounds like a desperate attempt to survive to avenge his race." Goku said with a frown as he crossed his arms. "So why is Earth in danger?"

"Ryazan has been alive for a long time and has been wanting to kill the Cold family and their organization, but you and Trunks took care of them and Vegeta destroyed the organization when he was traveling through space looking for you after your adventure on Namek." King Kai explained. "You guys took Ryazan's revenge from him, but that is not why Earth is in danger. Anyone who lives long enough can find themselves changing. What started as a desire for revenge has turned his heart evil. He has lived for so long seeking revenge that it took over his very being and now he can't see the good in life anymore. He wants nothing more than power at this point and to reign over the galaxy."

"Though he wants to do that, he is not yet strong enough to rule over the entire galaxy so he goes to different parts of the galaxy and chooses a planet that has strong fighters on it. He has the ability to drain life from a planet, from the plants to the animals to the people. He usually starts with draining the planet of all its life to get stronger than goes after the strongest fighters on the planet to challenge them. And as they are fighting, he is draining their power. I don't know how he does it, but he drains them until there is nothing left of them."

"He's going after my son." Goku concluded, eyes narrowed and his anger radiating off of him in waves.

The warriors listened to King Kai's tale in horror, but when Goku started to radiate his anger, they backed away from him. They did not want to feel the wrath of Goku. He always talked with pride about his son who was stronger than him, but the moment he heard someone was going after him, they didn't want to be around him. He got so furious when someone targeted his son, even if his son was strong enough to handle it.

"Yes, and the other Z fighters as well. I'm also worried about what would happen if he learned there were Dragon Balls on Earth." King Kai said darkly. At this point, he was sure Ryazan desired to use them again, though he couldn't claim that as fact. He couldn't find Namek since the Namekians were moved to a new planet, but if he could, he believed he would head there again.

Arms dropping down to his sides, Goku's hands curled into fists. "How long until he gets to Earth?"

"Not very long, I'm afraid. He'll be there soon." King Kai replied.

"If you're that worried, you can always use the crystal ball."

Goku's head snapped up to see Grand Kai sitting on the roof of his mansion. "What?"

"There is a crystal ball you can use to view what is happening on Earth. I only allow warriors to use it in extreme circumstances, and this seems to be one if Ryazan is in–"

"Where is it?" Goku demanded, interrupting the Grand Kai, much to the horror of the Kais and other warriors, but Grand Kai seemed to take it in stride and snapped his fingers. There was a bright blue light that filled up the vicinity and left everyone blind.

When the light died down, there was a giant floating crystal ball in front of them.

"All you have to do is say 'show me…' and say the person's name." Grand Kai explained as he floated down from the roof and to the ground to approach the crystal ball.

"Show me Gohan Son!" Goku said as he jumped closer to the crystal ball. He stared into the crystal ball, unblinking as it shimmered before Gohan, dressed in the same orange and blue gi that Goku was wearing, appeared on it. Goku actually blinked when he saw his son and stepped back in surprise as he watched Gohan land on the Lookout and have to immediately jump forward and he turned around and threw his hand out to block a ki ball.

"That's your son?" Pikkon asked. "He bears a great resemblance to you, Goku."

Goku grinned. "Thank you." He looked at his son to see that he was only a few inches taller than the last time he saw him at the Cell Games.

A moment later a very angry Vegeta appeared on the Lookout.

"Oh look, it's Vegeta." Goku said cheerfully.

"Why does it look like he's ready to murder Gohan?" King Kai asked with a frown.

Goku cocked his head in confusion. "That is a good question."

"Is he a friend?" Olibu asked as he stepped forward to watch in curiosity.

"Yeah, though he is too arrogant at times and has tried to kill us all in the past." Goku replied, still cheerful as he watched his son and friend. He was glad to see that both of them looked well after two years.

"**BRAT!" Vegeta screamed as he launched himself forward at Gohan. **

"**Don't you dare fight on the Lookout!" Piccolo growled as he came out of the temple to glare at Vegeta. "This place has been destroyed too many times already." **

"**Too many? We only destroyed it once and that was five years ago!" Gohan retorted. "Or did you guys destroy it before I was born?"**

**Piccolo shot him a look. "Before you born, this was sacred ground and it was forbidden for people to come up. It was never meant to be used as a home base type of thing for the Z fighters. And having it destroyed once is too many times, Gohan!" **

"**Ooooh, is that so?" Gohan asked before turning to look at Vegeta. "I'm actually surprised you stop when Piccolo said to. You never listen to anyone." **

**Vegeta was looking up at the sky with a frown. "Quiet, brat. Don't you feel that?" **

**Gohan dropped his grin and adopted a serious expression. He looked towards the sky and spread his senses out towards space. It didn't take him long to find what Vegeta found and his eyes widened in horror a second later. "What in the hell is that?" **

"You didn't say Ryazan was so close that they would already be able to sense him!" Goku said, looking over at King Kai.

King Kai frowned. "It may be possible that he is traveling faster than I realized."

"**It's why I was looking for you, brat, but once again you flew off." Vegeta growled, glaring at the saiyan hybrid. **

"**What do you think I am going to do when you are hunting me down?!" Gohan retorted, throwing his arms into the air. "I thought you were after a spar again."**

**Vegeta glared at him. "I am always up for a spar, so when this is over, we will train." **

"**I hate training with you." Gohan grumbled to himself as he turned away with a pout. **

"Gohan trains with Vegeta now?" Goku said shocked. "I didn't think Vegeta trained with anyone. I always thought he would kill anyone that tried to interfere with it."

"He sounds like a joy to be around." Olibu said sarcastically.

Goku rubbed the back of his head. "He is a bit hard to deal with at first, but after a while you get used to him."

"**The woman has detected a ship approaching Earth and it will soon be here." Vegeta said, looking back at the sky. "And it is obviously an enemy. His ki feels very dark and evil." **

"**Kind of like yours in the beginning." Gohan said. **

"**Shut it." Vegeta growled. **

**Gohan shrugged his shoulders and looked over at Piccolo and Dende, who came out of the temple. "It seems trouble has reared its ugly head again." **

**Dende nodded. "Will you be able to handle it?"**

**The half-saiyan shrugged and looked up at the sky. "I don't know. Whoever this is feels very strong, and he might be masking his power so he might be even stronger. That could pose a serious problem." **

"Should we warn him that Ryazan is immortal?" Sarta asked with a frown. "It could be problematic if they do not know."

King Kai nodded. "It would be best. Goku, you should tell your son. It will be easier for him to have you talk to him since he's never met me."

Goku nodded and moved over to King Kai where he put his hand on his back. "Gohan?"

***DBZ***

Gohan continued looking at the sky with a frown. That power that was approaching Earth felt massive and if he was hiding his power, it would be a horrible experience dealing with him. Even as a super saiyan 2, he wasn't sure if he could handle this. This really might be too much for him.

"**Gohan?"**

Blinking out of his thoughts, Gohan looked around. Wasn't that his dad's voice? He knew he hadn't heard it in two years, but it wasn't a voice he could forget. "Dad? What's up?"

Vegeta, Piccolo, and Dende looked over at him.

"Kakarot is speaking with you?" Vegeta asked.

"Yep, sorry I didn't tune you guys in at first." Goku's voice echoed over the Lookout. "And what's up, Gohan, is that King Kai just told me of the threat approaching you guys. It's apparently someone named Ryazan and he's going to be tough to beat since he is immortal."

"Immortal? Seriously?" Gohan snapped as glared at the floor. "I hate dealing with immortal beings. They never know when to stay down. Seriously, even just putting a giant hole through their chest won't keep them down."

Vegeta and Dende looked at him like he was crazy.

"What the hell are you talking about?" Vegeta demanded.

Gohan waved him off. "Don't worry about it. Just something from the past. So, Dad, what's up with this Ryazan guy? What's he want?"

"To put it bluntly, he came to Earth looking for you." Goku replied.

Gohan blinked a few times. Ryazan was looking for him? What did he ever do to this guy? His dad was the trouble magnet, not him! "Why?"

Goku sighed and started to explain to Gohan and the others the same story that King Kai just gave the warriors in Otherworld. While he told the story, Gohan kept his attention on the ship that was approaching Earth. The closer it was getting, the more terrifying the power was. It felt stronger and darker the closer it got.

"Tch, the Planet Trade Organization is always causing problems, even when it is destroyed." Vegeta growled as he crossed his arms and looked over the edge of the Lookout.

"Gohan's power must be really amazing for this Ryazan to know about it and be on his way. He must have sensed it from far away." Krillin said with a frown.

Gohan blinked in surprise and looked over the bald fighter. "Krillin? What are you doing here? Actually, when did you even get here?"

"Obviously when you weren't paying attention." Krillin teased at his friend.

Gohan flushed. "I was focusing on Ryazan's ki. It won't be long until he gets here."

Krillin nodded his head as he crossed his arms. "Bulma called me at Kame House and told me about the ship fast approaching. Since I sensed you guys up here, I came here. Thanks for the warning about his immortality, Goku."

"No problem, Krillin." Goku replied, a grin heard in his voice. "I wish I could be there to help, but I'm sure Gohan can handle it."

"Least someone has confidence in me." Gohan mumbled before saying louder. "I'm not sure of what I can do. He is immortal and while I've defeated Garlic Jr. in the past that was only because he opened the Dead Zone and I knocked him into it. I very much doubt Ryazan will do something that stupid."

"He definitely won't." King Kai interjected. "You have to be very careful not to let him drain your power."

"Well, it would be helpful if we knew how he drains power." Vegeta retorted.

"I'm sure you'll found out soon enough." King Kai snapped.

"Sheesh, Vegeta seems very irritated today." Krillin mumbled. "Seeing as how he loves a great battle, you think he would be all up for this challenge."

Gohan shrugged. "Maybe its cause Vegeta was trying to murder me earlier and once again, failed."

"That's hardly new. When isn't he trying to kill you?" Krillin asked amused.

Gohan was quiet for a moment as he thought about that. He looked over at Vegeta, who had his back to him, then back to Krillin. "When he is training."

Vegeta snorted. "Even when I am training, I am planning your death."

"I think you must be obsessed with my demise." Gohan replied amused. "I think you need a hobby."

Vegeta glared at him over his shoulder. "If I was obsessed with it, I would have already ended your life."

"Well," Gohan huffed offended as he turned his back to the prince and crossed his arms.

Krillin leaned in closer to Gohan. "I think when this is over you should stop with your routine of driving him crazy when he comes for a spar."

Gohan looked at him as if he was crazy. "Where is the fun in that?"

"Gohan, stop purposefully agitating Vegeta. That's a dangerous game." Goku scolded. "And I think you need to focus. Ryazan is going to be there soon."

"By soon, I think you mean now!" Dende shouted horrified as he pointed at the sky.

"What?" Piccolo snapped and he looked up at the sky to see a ship entering the atmosphere and approaching the ground below at a very fast speed.

But to their surprise, the door to the ship opened as it was moving down to the ground and the occupant of it jumped out of it. He floated in the air with his back to the Lookout.

"Gohan, I trust you. Protect the Earth." Goku said before he was gone.

"Oh, man, this is going to suck majorly." Krillin moaned.

Gohan stared at the new enemy then looked down at his trembling hands. The protection of the Earth had been entrusted to him by his dad, but against a powerful immortal being, he wasn't sure he could do this.

No.

His hands curled into fists. He couldn't doubt himself, not now. The Earth needed him. His friends and family needed him. His father trusted him to do this and he would do this. There was no room for fear or hesitation here. It was time to do the job entrusted to him by his father. He was the protector of Earth, and he would not fail his home.

**A/N: Please Review! **


	2. Ch2: Round 1: Gohan vs Ryazan pt 1

**Disclaimer: I don't own Dragon Ball Z**

**A/N: Thanks to everyone who reviewed!**

**Earth's Protector**

**Chapter 2: ****Round 1: Gohan vs Ryazan pt. 1**

Goku dropped his hand from King Kai's back and sat down in front of the crystal ball. His hands tightly gripped his ankles as he watched his son and friends on the Lookout.

"Do you honestly believe that your son can handle this? Ryazan is immortal which means he can't be defeated! I doubt a child will be the one to end this." West Kai sneered as he looked at the crystal ball anxiously. Ryazan has been terrorizing the galaxy for a long time and so many planets have lost all life because of him stealing it. He was almost just as horrible as Frieza.

The dead saiyan looked over at him with a smile. "I do trust Gohan to handle this. He is much stronger than me." He told the West Kai, though by the way his fingers dug into his boots, it was obvious he was distressed over this whole situation. And why wouldn't he be? A powerful foe was on Earth to steal the life from it and go after his son and friends for energy to make himself stronger. He wanted to be there to protect his son from this, but he couldn't be so what he could do was put his trust in his son to save the Earth. And of course, watch over him from the Otherworld, completely prepared by being locked onto Gohan's energy signal at all times. At any moment he was ready to transport down there to save his son if it was needed, screw the consequences.

***DBZ***

"Damn, he's here already. We don't have a plan." Piccolo growled.

Gohan walked a few steps ahead, eyes locked on Ryazan, who was still just floating a bit away from the Lookout. They didn't have a lot of time before he made a move. A plan of action was needed, and preferably one before Vegeta charged in and attacked Ryazan. They didn't need another fiasco like what occurred at the Cell Games. "Being immortal, we won't be able to defeat him." He said slowly, eyes still locked on his enemy. "We need to do something about that."

"But what?" Krillin asked with a frown. "In the past, we dealt with immortal beings by having you blast them into the Dead Zone. And unfortunately, I don't see Garlic Jr. around to open that for us again."

An amused smirk graced Gohan's face for a second before he turned serious once more. "When we were on Namek, Vegeta said he wanted immortality so since then I have been thinking about it. Even if you wished yourself immortal," The half-saiyan looked over at his friends. "Wouldn't it also be possible for someone to use the Dragon Balls to wish that immortality away?"

"What?" Piccolo asked shocked.

"Is something like that even possible?" Krillin asked, glancing at Piccolo and Dende then back to Gohan. It was a good idea, but a risky one if it didn't work since it would take a lot of time to gather the Dragon Balls.

"We don't have any other option. If this doesn't work, we are screwed." Gohan snapped.

***DBZ***

"Wishing his immortality away is not something I thought of." West Kai said with a scowl.

King Kai laughed mockingly. "Because my side of the galaxy is clearly smarter than yours."

"Oh, one smart kid and you think you are so much better." West Kai snapped in annoyance, glaring at the North Kai.

"No, I know I am better. Goku beat Pikkon and Gohan is smart and tough as nails. My warriors are always better than yours." King Kai retorted with an overly proud smirk.

"Gohan never trained under you." Goku pointed out without taking his eyes off the crystal ball.

"But he is in the north part of the galaxy so that makes him one of my warriors." King Kai argued, glaring at Goku for getting in the way of his war with West Kai over who was better.

**Gohan looked over at the young guardian. "What do you think, Dende? Can Shenron take away immortality?"**

**Dende frowned. "I'm not sure, Gohan. There has never been a situation like this before, but I don't see why it wouldn't be possible." **

**Gohan nodded, more to himself as he looked back at Ryazan. "Krillin, go to my house. I have two Dragon Balls there. Piccolo, go get the one at Kame House. Vegeta, go home and get the dragon radar from Bulma and then you three need to get the other four Dragon Balls as fast as possible. I'll keep Ryazan distracted until you can make the wish." **

**Vegeta walked over to the half-saiyan, glaring at him. "Who do you think you are to order me around? I will not leave a fight. If you want to make such a wish, then go get the radar yourself." **

"**No!" Gohan snapped, turning around to glare at the prince. "You aren't strong enough to hold him off long enough until the Dragon Balls have been gathered." **

**Vegeta's hand flew forward to snatch Gohan's shirt. He pulled the boy into his face and stared into his eyes with a scowl. Gohan glared right on back at Vegeta, not faltering an inch. **

"**Are you saying you're better than me?" The prince snarled. **

"**The answer has not changed once in the past two years." Gohan retorted, unflinching as he stared into Vegeta's angry eyes. "Yes, I am stronger than you which is why I can handle this part of the plan better than you." **

"Gohan has changed." King Kai murmured.

"How so?" Grand Kai asked interested. He was generally interested in this kid mostly because since Goku has been on his planet, he has heard the warrior in passing speaking of his son to some of the other warriors. The way he talked about him made him seem very special so he was intrigued to see what it was.

"He was always hesitant about fighting and never made the plans." King Kai explained. Though having never met the half-saiyan, he spent a lot of time watching the kid as he was always involved with the big battles that he was keeping an eye on. He watched him fight the saiyans, the Ginyu force, Frieza, and Cell and through all those battles, he has learned about the kid. Though he was always hesitant in his fights when he was younger, he saw as he watched Gohan that he really was his father's son. Their strength, bravery, stubbornness, refusals to give up, and pure hearts made them so alike in their battles.

"That's because he was a kid. Still is, but he is the strongest now and when I died, I essentially left him in charge of the Z fighters so he had to change to deal with this." Goku replied.

"That's a lot of pressure to put on a child." Pikkon looked over at his friend. "How old is he?"

"Two years have passed, right?" Goku looked over at King Kai for confirmation and once he received the nod, he answered, "He's thirteen now."

"He's very young for a warrior." Olibu commented.

**Vegeta scoffed and roughly shoved Gohan back. "Fine, do as you wish, brat. But if you get killed, I won't be the one telling that harpy of mother you have." **

Goku whistled. "Wow, now this is surprising. I didn't think Vegeta ever backed down."

***DBZ***

Gohan straightened his shirt while rolling his eyes at Vegeta. Stupid prince. Why couldn't he just listen to him from the start, instead of testing to make sure he had the unwavering determination that was needed in his plan here? It was his plan so it should have been obvious he had the guts to go with it and his role in it.

Forgetting Vegeta for now, he looked back at the guardian of Earth. "Dende, go with them." He ordered.

"What?" Dende asked surprised. His surprise soon morphed into a frown as he glared at his friend for even suggesting he leave. "No, Gohan. I am staying here with you. You'll be fighting alone against Ryazan. It will take time for them to gather all the Dragon Balls. In that time, you can get severely injured by Ryazan. You need me here to heal you and keep you on your feet!"

Gohan glared at Dende. "Yes, it will take them time which is why you need to get out of here. If you are killed, the Dragon Balls will disappear and then we are all royally screwed."

"And if you die, Ryazan will get stronger by stealing your energy and he'll get away from here and go find the others, at which point he will be too strong for them to deal with." Dende retorted.

Gohan glared at Dende, who glared determinedly back at his friend. He was not going to back down here. He didn't want to leave Gohan alone on the battlefield with a dangerous, immortal enemy. Such a move should be considered suicide.

"Are you not confident in your skills to protect him?" Vegeta sneered, as he pushed Gohan away from Dende. "Where is all that confidence you were just displaying?"

Gohan shifted his glare to Vegeta. How dare he insinuate that he didn't trust his skills and strength? That had nothing to do with this. It was just dangerous to let Dende stay up. Scowling, Gohan turned back around to see Ryazan. "Enough, we're wasting time. Do what you wish, Dende. The rest of you, leave now!"

And with that, Gohan powered up to super saiyan in an instance and flew off the Lookout and right at Ryazan.

"I don't like this." Krillin said with a frown as he watched the glowing gold form of his friend heading off to fight alone.

Keeping his eyes on his student, Piccolo growled, "Then move fast." He slowly lifted off the Lookout. "The more time we waste, the longer Gohan will have to fight alone." Forcing his eyes away from Gohan, he looked over at the young guardian. "Be careful and stay out of sight until Gohan needs healing."

Dende nodded. "I will. I'll be sure to keep Gohan alive, but please get the Dragon Balls as fast as possible."

Vegeta scoffed and powered up before flashing off the Lookout and towards his home. His eyes briefly moved to where Gohan was now floating in front of Ryazan. "Your father died before I could surpass him. You better not do the same, brat, or I'll never forgive you."

Back on the Lookout, Mr. Popo put a hand on the young Namekian's shoulder. "Come now, Dende. Let's find a good place to hide that will also allow us to keep an eye on Gohan." He pushed Dende towards the temple when it seemed the guardian was too focused on watching Gohan.

***DBZ***

"How strong is Ryazan at this point?" Goku asked, eyes locked on Gohan. In the background, he briefly registered the fact that Krillin, Piccolo, and Vegeta were blasting off the Lookout to follow his son's order. But only briefly. Most of his focus was on his thirteen year old little boy who was floating in front of Ryazan.

"Hmm, it's hard to say. I don't think he has revealed his full power recently and considering that I don't know how far your son has advanced in the past two years, I couldn't tell you if he can handle holding Ryazan off long enough for the others to call Shenron." King Kai replied, knowing that Goku's question was only to breach the topic of if his belief in his son being able to handle this was well founded. "But with a rough estimate, he is definitely stronger than a super saiyan, so Gohan won't be able to handle him at the first level."

"He should find a way to stall then. Having a healer close by is good, but it would be best not to need him too much. If he gets healed too much, Ryazan will realize something is up." Pikkon said with a frown.

"That is true. It is how Dende ended up dead on Namek when they were fighting Frieza." King Kai said with a frown. He hoped that Gohan remembered that and wisely planned around it so that didn't happen again.

***DBZ***

Gohan floated in front of Ryazan, arms crossed and eyes leveled on his enemy as he acted more confident than he felt. He had to hold Ryazan off long enough for the others to make the wish. Since he wasn't sure how long that would take a bit of fear entered his heart, but he forced it down. As a child, he learned that the battlefield was no place for fear or hesitation. Both just brought danger and mistakes to the fight.

His teal eyes took in Ryazan. Now that he was closer to him, he was able to see him better. Ryazan was about Piccolo's height, but with the muscle mass of his dad. His skin was a pale blue with white scales on his hands, forearms and on the sides of his neck that led up to the lower half of his face. The white scales were also on his pointed ears, one of which had a golden hoop earring on it. His blood red eyes were narrowed vertical slits, which just gave him a scary appearance. There was neither a smile or a frown on his face which just made his expression that much nerve-racking, not that Gohan would ever admit such a thing though. And unless Ryazan could transform like Frieza, he wouldn't be scared of him.

Gohan's eyes moved down the rest of the alien's appearance. He wore loose dark blue pants which were tucked into his black boots which had metal plates on the front of them. Those would surely make his attacks more painful. Along with that, he wore a red sash around his waist and a dark blue shirt. On his right wrist was a black leather band with a smooth white gem in the middle of it. Resting on his shoulder was a long flowing black cape and a sword on his back.

"And who are you?" Ryazan asked as he stared right back at Gohan. "A child sent to greet me? This has got to be the most pathetic welcoming I have ever received on any planet I have visited."

'_Good, underestimate me.' _Gohan thought as he stared unflinching at Ryazan.

***DBZ***

Goku chuckled a bit. "He is always underestimated because of his age." His chuckle soon faded away as he turned serious once more.

"That's not surprising. From the way you speak of your son, he sounds very strong and skilled. Most kids don't have that kind of power." Pikkon pointed out, looking at Goku's son with curiosity. With how much Goku spoke of him, he was very curious to see if he lived up to his father's praise.

"I know. I didn't even have a fourth of the power he has when I was his age." Goku replied with a very proud smile. He loved his son so much, and while he knew Gohan didn't enjoy fighting all these dangerous battles, he knew his boy wanted nothing more than to protect them all and just have fun with martial arts. But despite that, when he saw his son on the battlefield, able to keep up with the rest of them and to see him defeat enemies just made him so proud. Of course, that was countered by the fact that he was always scared as well when his son was almost killed during battles and it made him furious, with the enemies and himself for allowing it to happen.

"**I don't have time to play with children." Ryazan scoffed. "Where is the strongest warrior on this planet?"**

"**Strongest warrior?" Gohan echoed innocently. "Probably a bit over there, probably a bit here, some over them, and some up there." He pointed towards the sky. **

**Ryazan stared at the young half-saiyan as if he was a crazy idiot. **

"**He got blown up about two years ago." Gohan clarified in a matter of fact tone. **

Goku laughed. "Geez, Gohan, you surpassed me before I got blown up."

"It seems he is trying to keep Ryazan from finding out about his strength." East Kai murmured.

"That, or it is the fact that for some reason he is showing more of Vegeta's personality. Must be from training with him." Goku muttered. He didn't care if his son trained with Vegeta, but did he have to pick up his personality traits with that?

King Kai scoffed. "If that was the case, I think he would be more willing to brag about how strong he is. That is what it seems Vegeta is always doing."

***DBZ***

Ryazan glared at Gohan. "Stupid child, I do not care about the dead. Who is the strongest on the planet now?"

Gohan shrugged. "I'm supposed to keep track?" He smirked and pointed a thumb at himself. "Fight me. I'll be your opponent. No one else will be coming to face you anytime soon."

Ryazan smirked as he spoke, "So eager to die."

Before Gohan's very eyes, Ryazan suddenly disappeared and reappeared right in front of him with his fist embedded in the half-saiyan's stomach. In shock and pain, Gohan keeled over, spit flying from my mouth. "So fast." He muttered, arms wrapping around his stomach. There was not much time for anything else as Ryazan's foot slammed into his chest with enough force to send him flying backwards through the air.

The wind whipped at Gohan's face as his body flew through the air faster than it ever has before after getting his. He moved so fast that it only felt like a second before his back was slamming into a hard ground and he was skidding backwards.

Grunting, Gohan rolled over onto his hands and knees, staring down at the tiled floor of the Lookout. "Back on the Lookout." Gohan smirked, hands curling into fists on the floor. "Sorry, Piccolo. I think it's going to get utterly destroyed again."

The half-saiyan jumped to his feet and spun around to stare at Ryazan as he landed on the Lookout. "I hope that's not the best you've got, Ryazan. If it is, I'm going to be very disappointed." He taunted. Of course, it was a complete lie. That attack had actually hurt a lot more than he anticipated, but he was only just getting started, as he was sure Ryazan was too.

"Have we met before?" Ryazan asked as he crossed his arms and took in Gohan's appearance. "No, I don't think we have, so how do you know who I am?"

"We're not here for small talk." Gohan retorted as he fell into his stance.

"Of course. It matters not how you know me since you will soon be dead." Ryazan replied as he fell into his own stance.

Gohan's eyes narrowed. "Not before you."

Ryazan's eyes narrowed in response. He stared at Gohan, who stared calculating back.

***DBZ***

"I thought you said Ryazan usually steals life from the planet first." Mijorin said with a frown.

"He does, unless he is challenged when he lands on a planet, like what Gohan did." King Kai replied with a worried look as he watched the fight. He didn't doubt Gohan's abilities. He saw the boy's fight with Cell and Bojack, but this might be too much for him. To hold off an immortal being alone until a wish is made …it was just insane. A completely insane plan!

"It was lucky he landed so close to where they were at that this could be done." Arqua said.

While it might be considered lucky by some, Goku wasn't so sure. It seemed to be too much of a coincidence that he landed right where his son and the others were. That was never how it worked out for them. The enemy never just showed up where they were. They had to go to them. Was it really just coincidence or was there something more to it?

**Gohan and Ryazan moved at the same time. They charged right at each other, but before they could slam into each other, both warriors changed direction and headed straight up towards the sky. As they flew parallel to each other, they started to exchange blows as they went. **

**Gohan's arm and Ryazan's arm hit each other as the latter's fist was blocked. Not even a second later, Gohan went on the offensive by slamming his knee into Ryazan's stomach. Ryazan coughed in surprise, but that was all before he was blocking a fist then a roundhouse kick with his arm. **

**In retaliation, Ryazan disappeared and reappeared behind Gohan, bringing his elbow slamming down. Just in time, Gohan spun around and caught the elbow before it could hit him. He swung his leg forward, but it was dodged and Ryazan backed away from him. **

"He moves just like you." Tyron said as he looked over at Goku. Having watched Goku's fights in the tournament and having sparred against him once, he could say that seeing Gohan fight was just like watching Goku.

Goku nodded. "Course, he is my son and I trained him extensively for a year in the time chamber. He learned my style of fighting then. But I know he likes to switch up which style he uses. He loves using the demon style of fighting since that was the first one he learned."

***DBZ***

Eyes narrowed in concentration, Gohan kept them locked on Ryazan, waiting for him to make a move. After training with his father in the time chamber and Vegeta for the past two years, he had gotten over his hesitation in fighting and would have normally charged forward to attack by now. But this was not a normal fight. While he wanted to defeat Ryazan, he couldn't do that yet so he had to play it safe in this fight and stall. The best way to stall right now was to wait for Ryazan to make the move and go from there.

Neither warrior moved, too focused on watching the other. It wasn't until that Gohan blinked that anything happened. In less than a second, Ryazan had vanished from where he was floating and Gohan was leaning his head to the left to avoid a punch.

The two froze there with Ryazan's fist still over Gohan's shoulder and the half-saiyan staying perfectly still as he stared at Ryazan's face that was so close to his. If he made the slightest move, showed the slightest bit of emotion here, he knew Ryazan would use it against him.

"Well, you are better than I thought you would be." Ryazan said with a smirk.

Gohan scowled as he took in Ryazan. They were matching each other in power and speed right now, but he was holding back and he could tell Ryazan was as well. It was a matter of testing the waters right now while warming up. And if Ryazan could match him while he was using about half of his power in his super saiyan state, this could end up being very problematic. Then there was what his dad told him about Ryazan's ability to drain energy. Since no one knew how he did that, he had to be on the watch for that. He couldn't let his energy be stolen and used by Ryazan.

But at least doing this, he could learn what he needed to from Ryazan. Once his immortality was wished away, he would already have the knowledge he needed to handle the fight better.

"Got nothing to say?" Ryazan asked amused.

Once again Ryazan disappeared so Gohan focused his attention on the battle at hand. He sensed Ryazan coming at him from the left and quickly lifted his arm to block the punch. He pushed himself forward, throwing a fist at Ryazan, which was dodged and retaliated with a knee. Gohan threw his hand down on the knee to block it and used the momentum to front flip and slam his feet into Ryazan's chin. When he felt Ryazan being pushed back from his feet connecting, he quickly added more force and finished the flip which resulting in shifting their positioning and sending Ryazan flying down to the Lookout.

Gohan didn't give him the chance to reach it though as he disappeared from the sky and reappeared under Ryazan. He flash forward to Ryazan and slammed his knee into his back. This sent Ryazan flying back towards the sky.

***DBZ***

"He's doing very well." South Kai stated as he continued to calmly watch the fight between Gohan and Ryazan.

"Mm-hmm," Goku replied, eyes locked on the crystal ball. "He has nine years of experience and with that, he has been in about…." The full-blooded saiyan paused as he thought about all their past fights. "…thirteen battles, I would say."

"Thirteen battles in nine years?" Olibu repeated with a frown. "Wouldn't that mean you had him on the battlefield as a child?"

"Since he was four or five." Goku answered. "It wasn't the safest and to be honest, I hated showing up to a battlefield and finding my son almost dead. But every time I told him to leave a battle or to not come, he would disobey the orders. He is too loyal to leave his friends fighting alone." He chuckled. "To be honest, those times when he disobeys my orders, I am glad he does. He always returns in the nick of time to save us. Even if he couldn't win the battles as a child, he would show up and save our lives to give us another chance or more time to win."

"You are very proud of him." Pikkon noted.

Goku smiled as he watched an angry Ryazan right himself in the air and glare down at Gohan. "I always am. Ever since he started training, it was my dream to see him surpass me. I was glad I was able to live long enough to see it come true."

***DBZ***

Krillin landed on the lawn at Gohan's house and ran up to the door. Not wanting to waste time, he knocked on the door and then entered the house. "Chi-Chi, it's Krillin!" He called as he ran into the house and followed the sounds of cooking to the kitchen to find Goku's wife.

Chi-Chi turned around in surprise, a wooden spoon in her hand, while Goten, from where he sat at the table coloring looked up with a big grin at Krillin. "Krillin, this is a surprise." She greeted before a scowl formed over her face. "And where are your manners? You don't just barge–"

"Chi-Chi, I don't have time for this!" Krillin interrupted quickly. "Gohan is in trouble with a new threat and we need the Dragon Balls. Gohan said there were two here."

"WHAT?!" Chi-Chi screeched, dropping her spoon to the ground, causing her youngest to look over at her with a worried frown. "My baby is in danger?!"

The former monk groaned. Why? Oh, why did Gohan have to order him here? Why couldn't it have been Piccolo or hell, even Vegeta, to be the ones to come here? Chi-Chi was so hard to deal with when it came to her sons being in danger. "There isn't any time for this!" He shouted, but Chi-Chi wasn't listening to him as she ran passed him, knocking him down as he did, and went to get ready for battle.

Krillin sat on the floor, making a mental note to himself to not get in the way of a panicking and angry Chi-Chi ever again. It was a danger to his health. He looked up at Goten, who was staring down at him.

"Go'an in danger, Unca Krillin?" Goten asked innocently, eyes wide in fear.

Krillin stood up and went over to Goten and pat him on the head. "Gohan is a strong boy, Goten. He'll be just fine." He assured the kid who was like a twin of his father before he ran to the living room. From the last few times Goku and Gohan have collected the Dragon Balls, they were usually placed on the mantle in the living room. He hoped that hadn't changed since the last time.

And to his luck, it hadn't. Sitting on a small red pillow were the three star and seven star Dragon Balls. Quickly snatching them up, Krillin stored them away in his pockets before running back out of the house, yelling over his shoulder, "Bye Chi-Chi, Goten!"

With that, he was taking off into the sky in the direction of West City. The sooner they met up with Vegeta, the less time that would be wasted.

"Wait!" Chi-Chi screamed as she came charging out of the house, decked out in a bullet proof vest with a machine gun and extra ammo strapped to her vest. "Krillin, you get back here and take me to my son!"

***DBZ***

Piccolo was flying towards Kame House, but though he kept himself aware of his surroundings since they couldn't know for sure if Ryazan had backup or not, he kept his attention on Gohan's ki as well. He knew Dende would heal Gohan as needed, but there was the risk that both of them and Mr. Popo could be found during the healing which could get them killed. There were so many unknown variables which left him worried. He knew Gohan sent all three of them away so the Dragon Balls could be collected as fast as possible, but that left Gohan in a difficult spot. He didn't argue earlier because he knew there was no time and with Gohan's stubborn streak, he wouldn't have listened. Damn kid was too obstinate at times.

Keeping track of the fight would do nothing for him. Sure, he could know how Gohan was doing and if he was alive, but if something happened, he wouldn't be able to get back there in time to help. So, all he was doing by keeping his attention on the battle was needlessly worrying if something did happen. And no, that did not mean he was getting soft. He just wanted to make sure that all the training he put Gohan through was not a complete waste.

That was the reason. No lie about that.

***DBZ***

A powerful wind swept through Bulma's lab, making the scientist look up in surprise as her papers blew everywhere. Her fingers stayed frozen on her keyboard where she had been doing some calculations about the spaceship that entered the atmosphere half an hour ago. She managed to determine that the ship hit the forest around Korin's Tower which was quite worrisome.

"Vegeta?" Bulma shouted as she found her husband standing in the center of her lab. "What are you doing here? Did you warn Gohan of the ship?"

"Woman, I don't have time for questions. I need the damn dragon radar." Vegeta snapped as he started to yank drawers out of the counters and desks nearby. When he found they didn't contain what he wanted, he dropped it to the ground and went to the next.

"Stop! You're making a mess!" Bulma growled as she jumped out of her chair. "What do you need the radar for?" She yanked the right drawer to her desk open. "It is always in the same spot, Vegeta. Honestly, you should know this by now." As she was grumbling, she pulled the radar out of her desk.

"Woman, I don't have time so I will explain briefly." Vegeta growled. "Gohan is fighting the occupant of that ship you found. But the monster is immortal so the Namek, the bald idiot, and I need to collect the Dragon Balls as fast as possible to wish his immortality away before the kid is killed."

Bulma blinked at him in surprise before her expression morphed into serious mode. She put her radar down and yanked open the bottom drawer of her desk. "Then we will do it this way." She pulled out four scouters. "These are like the scouters you used when you were in Frieza's army, but they are of my own design." She tossed three of them to Vegeta, who caught them and looked at them. They looked exactly like the old scouters, except they all had blue screens and on the side was a Z with both ends of the Z connected to a circle that surrounded it. He scoffed as he looked at it. It must stand for the 'Z fighters.'

"I will give you direction from here." Bulma said as she put her scouter on and turned it on so it would automatically connect to the others as they were turned on. "Give those to Krillin and Piccolo, and make sure to tell them to turn them on. Heaven knows, they'll forget since they never used scouters in their lives."

**A/N: Any warrior names you don't recognize on Grand Kai's planet are just created ones and have no real importance to the story. There are just so many warriors on the planet and not all of them are named. **

**Please Review!**


	3. Ch3: Round 1: Gohan vs Ryazan pt 2

**Disclaimer: I don't own Dragon Ball Z**

**A/N: Thanks to all those who reviewed! **

**Earth's Protector**

**Chapter 3: ****Round 1: Gohan vs Ryazan pt. 2 **

Dende watched apprehensively as his eyes moved around the Lookout, trying to catch sight of anything that was Gohan or Ryazan. But both warriors were moving too fast for him to see anything. All he could hear were the booming sounds that came from their attacks. The sounds were coming from all over as both moved all around the Lookout at a speed faster than light.

His eyes caught sight of one of the trees being knocked down, but he didn't see either fighter around it. By the time the tree hit the ground, a pillar was dented and another tree was tumbling over.

"Oh no, he is going to destroy the Lookout again!" Mr. Popo groaned.

"I don't think that is the biggest concern here, Mr. Popo." Dende replied as he ducked his head back below the window of the room they were hiding in. It would be best that he wasn't seen by the enemy. That last time that happened he was killed.

The young guardian winced as he heard another explosion outside the temple of which the impact was so fierce that the floor beneath Dende trembled from it. Mr. Popo was definitely right about the Lookout being destroyed, though he seriously doubted that was Gohan's concern at the moment.

***DBZ***

Gohan's feet skidded along the tiled floor until the back of them hit the stairs that led into the temple. He lowered his crossed arms from over his head and glared at Ryazan. He was knocked back towards the once place he didn't want to be anywhere near. With Dende and Mr. Popo hiding in the temple, he had to keep Ryazan from getting too close to it. If he found out about them, he would surely kill them.

Ryazan lowered his leg and stood up straight as he took Gohan in with a smirk. "You have lasted longer than I expected. Most die within ten minutes."

The half-saiyan crossed his arms over his chest and said cockily, "I'm not like normal warriors you have fought in the past." Maybe his mom was right about his spending too much time with Vegeta was bad for his mentality. The last time he acted like this in a fight was when he first ascended in his battle with Cell.

Well, from what he knew from his fight with Cell and from watching Vegeta, acting like this could get the enemy riled and focused solely on him. If that was the case, maybe Ryazan would focus blindly on him, which would definitely keep Mr. Popo and Dende out of danger.

"Hmph, a cocky brat, aren't you?" Ryazan said. "Well, I suppose it's alright. Surviving this long against me is something to be proud of."

Gohan scoffed as he wiped some blood off his chin with his wristband. "So excessively proud of your power, you are. You remind me of someone else I know. He is so proud of his power, and yet, he is not the strongest."

The vertical red slits that were Ryazan's eyes practically glowed with anger. It was only for a moment though before he was back to normal and calmly taking in Gohan. "For making it this far, I will introduce myself."

"I'm honored." Gohan replied dryly, but it seemed that Ryazan didn't hear him or was ignoring his sharp tongue.

"I am Ryazan, son of Warrior Azar and Princess Mazarin, of the Zindart race. Who are you who fairs this well against me?" Ryazan asked.

Gohan blinked as he listened to Ryazan's way of introducing himself. He never heard anyone introduce themselves like that, but maybe it was how it was done on his planet. Well, alright then. Two people could play that game. "I am Gohan, half-saiyan and half-human son of Saiyan Warrior Goku and Princess Chi-Chi." He did a customary martial arts bow to Ryazan, but kept his eyes trained on him in case he tried anything.

"A saiyan? I thought they were all wiped out by Frieza years ago." Ryazan replied.

"Not all. A handful survived." Gohan replied. "Though by this point, there is only one full-blooded saiyan still alive."

***DBZ***

"Son of Saiyan Warrior Goku and Princess Chi-Chi?" Sarta repeated with a raised brow as he looked over at Goku.

Goku laughed. "I forgot Chi-Chi was the Princess of Fire Mountain." He watched as Ryazan suddenly launched himself at Gohan again.

"**How pathetic of Frieza!" Ryazan shouted. "He causes the genocide of so many races, and yet he fails to completely wipe out the saiyans so spectacularly!"**

**Gohan pushed Ryazan's fist aside and stared at Ryazan, who was stopped in front of him. "You say that of saiyans, but Frieza did the same thing to the Zindart race, and he failed there as well." **

"**True, but unlike the saiyan race, my people were not barbarians who delighted in nothing more than violence." Ryazan sneered. **

"That's the saiyan race?" Erath asked with a frown as he looked over at Goku. "That doesn't sound like you at all."

"When I was a baby, I was sent to Earth to purge it of all life, but before I could, I hit my head and got amnesia so I didn't even know I was a saiyan until Raditz came to Earth." Goku replied with a frown. "So I grew up without the knowledge of saiyans so I didn't turn out the same way as them."

"Except you still eat like a saiyan and have a thirst for battle like them." King Kai muttered as he gravely remembered all the food that Goku ate. It was so troublesome to prepare him so much food all the time.

An amused laugh escaped Goku at that. Man, now that made him so hungry, but he didn't want to eat until he knew for sure that his son and the planet were safe.

***DBZ***

Teal eyes narrowed angrily. Over the past two years he had learned more about the saiyan race from Vegeta. So much so, that Vegeta said he had much more pride in his saiyan heritage then Goku ever did. It was true that saiyans could be ruthless and merciless. Vegeta explained that he (Gohan) displayed those same traits when he first ascended in his fight with Cell. He showed his saiyan side and he remembered how it felt so what Ryazan said about saiyans was true, but that was not how all saiyans were. They enjoyed fighting and battle, but before Frieza showed up and manipulated them, they did not go around purging planets. They did not actively search for the destruction of races. The only race they destroyed before Frieza were the Tuffle race when they were warring over the planet. But that was not the concern here.

The concern here was that Ryazan insulted his saiyan heritage. Over the years, he developed more pride in his races, human and saiyan. He was proud of his human side, but he was also proud of his saiyan side. Both were him and no one had a right to insult his races.

Not to mention his father was a saiyan. And while his father identified as being a human, he was still a saiyan and he wasn't barbaric or violent. Sure, he enjoyed fighting, but he wasn't violent and didn't torture his enemies. So by calling saiyans violent barbarians, he was insulting him, the saiyan race, and his pure-hearted father and that just wasn't allowed!

Gohan slammed his knee forward, but it was blocked by Ryazan's knee. Growling, Gohan swung a fist forward, but Ryazan tilted his head to the side to avoid it and before the half-saiyan could pull it back, Ryazan wrapped his hand around the wrist and then grabbed Gohan's left leg with his other hand.

Feeling himself lifted into the air, Gohan glared down at Ryazan who still had his right arm and left leg captured. He slammed his free foot down into Ryazan's face, but the Zindart didn't even budge from the force of it.

Ryazan then spun halfway around before flinging Gohan towards the temple. Before Gohan could get control of himself to stop, Ryazan's foot slammed into his chest with so much power that his eyes widened in pain. He could feel his ribs cracking from that, but that was the least of his concerns when he suddenly slammed through the wall of the temple, but his body didn't stop there. His body continued to be propelled backwards into the pillars of the room and then through another wall before he finally hit the ground, but he didn't stop as he skidded backwards even farther. Finally Gohan stopped when his head hit another pillar and even then, the force sent cracks all up the pillar.

"Ooooow," Gohan moaned from where he laid on the ground. A violent cough wracked his body and he tasted the familiar iron taste of blood in his mouth before it was being spat out with the cough. Waves of pain were sent flowing through his body from the coughs. That kick definitely broke some ribs.

"Gohan!"

Hearing a familiar voice call his name, Gohan cracked his eye open to see Dende running over to him. He hoped to all the kais in the Otherworld that Ryazan didn't follow him in here. He didn't need him seeing Dende. If he went to Namek like his dad said, then he would recognize Dende as Namekian. He didn't know if he would do anything if he knew there were Namekians on Earth, but it gave him enough concern to wonder, what if he thought there were Dragon Balls on Earth if there were Namekians here?

"Don't worry." Dende said as he kneeled by Gohan and looked his friend over when he didn't move or respond to him. A wave of concern was sent through him when Gohan coughed again and blood flew out of his mouth. "I'll heal you right away." Dende's tiny hands rested over Gohan and soon the half-saiyan felt the familiar warmth of Dende's warm healing ki rolling over his body.

As Dende healed him, Gohan moved his eyes up to look at the ceiling of the room he was knocked into. Ryazan wasn't fooling around anymore. His kick had affected Ryazan before, but the fact that he didn't even flinch this last time meant that Ryazan was unleashing more of his power. This could end up badly for him. His eyes moved to Dende with a worried, pained shine in them. He should have been more forceful about Dende leaving the Lookout earlier.

***DBZ***

"It's lucky he has a healer there." Pikkon said as they watched Gohan get healed by Dende. "The fact that he needs one after one blow from Ryazan is quite disturbing though." He looked over at Goku, who was still solely concentrated on his son. "And I don't think it has anything to do with your son. From what I am sensing, he is showing the same amount of strength you first displayed when you got here."

Goku nodded as he watched his son slowly start to move his hands. Good, that meant he would be getting up soon. "Ryazan isn't playing around anymore, which means Gohan is going to have to up his game as well."

"Of course he does! He'll never survive until the wish is made if he doesn't start taking this seriously!" King Kai shouted. "And he knows that. With how smart he is, he'll stop holding back now."

**Finally healed, Gohan flew out of the room and through the destroyed one he was knocked through. As he was nearing the hole in the wall, he dropped down to his feet and walked carefully towards it. He jumped over the destroyed rubble and looked over at Ryazan, who was casually leaning against a pillar, admiring his now drawn sword. **

"**Oh? Still alive, are you?" Ryazan asked without looking up from his sword. "That's good. I would hate for our fight to end from just that. I'm only just getting started, Warrior Gohan." **

**Gohan didn't reply. Instead, he just stood unmoving as he stared at Ryazan. **

"**So," Ryazan pushed off the pillar and casually pointed his sword at the ground. "What do you say we start round two, Warrior Gohan?" **

"Come on, Gohan. You can do this. I know you can protect the Earth." Goku whispered to himself, unaware that his friends could hear him. But even if he was aware, he would not care. All that was important to him was his son right now.

***DBZ***

"Here," Vegeta tossed a scouter to Krillin, who caught it in surprise.

"I thought these were all destroyed." Krillin said as he looked at it. "And what do we need it for?"

"They were made by my woman. She is going to direct us the Dragon Balls. Put it on, turn it on, and shut up." Vegeta snapped as he turned his own scouter on. "Woman, you there?"

Krillin looked at the scouter before shrugging and putting it on his ear. Once it was securely in place, he hit the red button. There was some fuzz for a moment before he heard Bulma's voice, "I'm here. And I see you met up with someone who has two Dragon Balls."

"Wow, you can tell he is with someone?" Krillin asked surprised.

"Of course." Bulma replied with a smile in her voice. "As soon as you turn that scouter on, I can track your location. This will be helpful in me leading you to the Dragon Balls. Is Piccolo almost caught up? He went to Kame House, right?"

"Yeah, I feel him getting close to us." Krillin replied as he blinked a few times. He never wore a scouter before and now he realized he wasn't a fan of it. All he could see was the world in a blue tint through his left eye. It was pretty annoying. "But you know, if you can track us with these things, maybe you could try to put a map or something on the screen of these things that lead us to the Dragon Ball. You know, kind of have it connected to the radar if we ever have to do this again."

"You know, that's actually a good idea. It would take some time to configure it just right though." Bulma replied interested, properly already plotting some ideas and designs in her mind.

Vegeta rolled his eyes. Great, another experiment for her to work on. She should spend more time improving his GR so he could have more efficient training so he could surpass Gohan. All her other experiments were completely unimportant.

He looked to the side as he saw Piccolo approaching. Without waiting for him to get any closer, he tossed the scouter to Piccolo, who looked at it with disdain.

"Good luck wearing that with those ears." Krillin said amused.

Piccolo shifted his glare to Krillin. He pushed the red button on the scouter and lifted it up to his ear, but didn't bother putting it on. He would not wear this thing, just use it to get a general idea of where he had to go.

"Okay, we need to get four more Dragon Balls." Bulma said. "The closest one to your position is to your north."

"Krillin, go get that one." Piccolo ordered. It was a good idea to send the slowest of the three to the closest Dragon Ball and he and Vegeta could go to the farthest locations. It would waste less time.

"Alright," Krillin replied before he powered up and blasted off in that direction.

"Another is to your southwest and to your east is another one." Bulma continued.

"I'll take the one to the east." Vegeta said.

"That leaves me with the one to the southwest." Piccolo said. "Let's not waste any time now."

Krillin listened to his friends choose their locations before focusing on his task. So it seemed that these scouters connected them all to each other, which would be helpful in their search. This way definitely saved them time. He enjoyed searching for Dragon Balls, but he didn't like it when it was involved around a dangerous mission, like with Frieza on Namek or this situation. He didn't want to leave Gohan fighting alone for much longer.

Especially when he felt those two high power levels in the distance. One was Ryazan and the other was Gohan. And the one that he knew was Gohan's was worrying him. While Ryazan was getting stronger and stronger, Gohan was getting weaker. What was going on? He knew Gohan was stronger than this…

***DBZ***

Gohan jumped back just in time as the sword tip just cut the orange top he was wearing. As Ryazan swung his sword down again, he jumped to the side to avoid it, but the edge just barely nicked his arm and in that instance, he was stumbling and falling onto his butt as he looked over at his arm. He raised his hand and opened and closed it a few times. That sword…..

The half-saiyan slammed his hands on the ground behind him and flipped backwards to avoid the sword that was coming down to chop him in half.

Well, it seems he finally found it. Gohan smiled grimly, kneeling on the ground, as blood trailed down his cut arm and to the ground. It was the sword. The moment that blade touched him, he felt his energy being yanked out of his very being. His eyes moved up to look up at Ryazan, who was looking at him in amusement. A few drops of blood dripped from his sword.

"The fact that you drew that sword must mean you find me worthy." Gohan said as he stood up. Oh, worthy alright. Worthy of getting his energy stolen so Ryazan could become stronger. He eyed the sword to try to understand it. How was the blade stealing energy as it cut people supposed to go to Ryazan?

Ryazan didn't reply as he thrust his sword forward. Gohan just barely twisted his body to the side in time to avoid getting his impaled, though he still felt it slice through his side. He stayed kneeling on the ground, hand resting on his bleeding side, with Ryazan towering over him at his side with his sword still thrust forward.

And in that moment, his eyes saw it. The leather black band on his wrist with the white gem in it was glowing gold. That had to be the energy that was stolen from him entering Ryazan's body and becoming one with him.

Gohan swung his leg out at Ryazan's legs, but the Zindart jumped backwards to avoid it, which gave Gohan the time he needed to stand up and get adjusted. The sword drained energy. Ryazan absorbed that drained energy with that band which must be connected to the sword somehow. It was lucky for him he only got nicked by the sword twice. If he got seriously hurt by it, it could become a big problem. He needed to get that sword out of here.

***DBZ***

"Did that mean something?" Torbie asked confused. "What did your son mean by being worthy to have a sword drawn against him?"

Goku looked at the crystal ball in confusion as his son started to frantically dodge all of the sword strikes. "I don't know. It's not like we know anything about the Zindart race, so it can't have anything to do with them." He crossed his arms as he thought. Maybe he was missing something. He wasn't on Earth fighting so maybe Gohan saw something that he didn't. With how well trained and smart Gohan was, he could spot many things in a fight that normal fighters wouldn't. That was how Goku trained him. He wanted his son to be the best so he trained him to be the best and to use his brains in a fight and not just brawns. Despite what Chi-Chi thought, he wasn't an idiot and did use his brain. He just didn't use it to be a scholar like she wanted for Gohan. His brain was intellectual and trained for battle.

**Gohan dropped down to the ground to avoid the sword, but was then met with a boot to the face which sent him skidding backwards. He forced himself to stop by slamming a hand into the ground and twisting his body around into the air before he dropped back down to his knees. Blood covered his face from his broken nose, but Gohan just lifted his shirt up and roughly wiped it away. **

"I don't understand." King Kai cried in frustration. "Why isn't he fighting seriously? Goku, didn't you train your son better than this? Why is he holding back?"

An uncharacteristic frown formed on Goku's face as he shot a look over at King Kai. "I spent a lot of time training my son to be a warrior, King Kai. If he isn't fighting at full strength, it's for a reason. He used to be hesitant in his fights, but he isn't like that anymore. He has to have a plan."

"Or perhaps you put too much faith in the boy." West Kai sneered as they watched Gohan take another punch to the face and then a kick to his chest which sent him flying into one of the trees still standing on the Lookout. Only, it was now no longer standing as Gohan's body ploughed right through it.

"You know, when I put my faith in Gohan to kill Cell, my friends said the same thing." Goku replied as he refocused on the crystal ball. "They doubted him, but in the end, he proved me right. Gohan has always saved us, and I know he is going to do it again. My trust is not misplaced. The Earth will be fine."

***DBZ***

Dende watched in horror as Gohan started taking a beating from Ryazan. Ryazan put his sword away in favor of beating up Gohan, who could do nothing but take it. As soon as the beating started, it impeded Gohan from recovering to pick up his speed so he wasn't fast enough to put up his defenses. "Why?" He whispered. "I know Gohan is stronger than this! Why isn't he taking this more seriously?"

"Dende," Mr. Popo interrupted, putting a hand on the young Namekian's shoulder. "Gohan may not be fighting at full strength but you should not be saying he isn't taking this seriously. He is working to protect the Earth. He always takes this seriously."

Dende breathed out slowly. "I know, I'm sorry, Mr. Popo. I just hate seeing Gohan get pounded on like this. He should be able to at least keep up with Ryazan. Watching this and only being able to hide makes this feel too much like Namek." His hands clenched into fists. "Please, Piccolo, Krillin. Hurry up with that wish."

He winced as he heard a cry of pain come from Gohan who was he was brutally slammed into the ground so hard that the whole Lookout trembled from the force.

***DBZ***

A head broke the surface of the calm ocean. Krillin took a few deep breathes until his breathing stabilized. He lifted his hand out of the water to reveal the one star Dragon Ball. "Found it."

With a grin, he slowly floated out of the water and over to where his clothes, Dragon Balls, and scouter were. He quickly redressed before putting his scouter back on. "Bulma? I found the Dragon Ball. That means we have four in total."

Before Bulma could reply, screaming from Vegeta interrupted them, "OH, YOU WANT TO GO BIRDBRAIN?" And what followed was a very loud explosion and a crash that assaulted Krillin's ear, causing him to wince and almost rip the scouter off and destroy it. Maybe it was a good thing that Piccolo chose not to wear his. He definitely would have blasted his into oblivion from that nose.

"What the hell was that?" Krillin shouted.

"Make that five." Vegeta spoke up again, sounding much calmer then he had a second ago.

Krillin just blinked. What did Vegeta just do? He didn't kill anyone, did he?

"VEGETA!" Bulma screeched. "What the hell did you just do?!"

Krillin ripped the scouter off and held it far away from him. He was not ready to go deaf just yet.

"Did you destroy something again?!"

"Whether I did or not should not matter. I got the damn Dragon Ball!"

"It does matter! When you destroy shit, I'm the one who has to fix it or pay for it, you idiot!"

"Oh, so honest. Well, I saw screw them. It shouldn't have been in my way!"

"Who the hell do you think you are? Not everyone is going to part for you!"

"I am the Prince of all Saiyans, damn it! Why does no one seem to respect that fact?!"

Krillin sighed as Bulma and Vegeta yelled at each other. Did they really have to do this at the most inopportune times? Could they please just remember that Gohan was fighting for his life waiting for them to make a wish?!

Sighing, he once again checked Gohan's power level and frowned when he found that it wasn't any higher than it was earlier. Why wasn't he fighting at full strength? Did he get injured and couldn't get to Dende to get healed without alerting Ryazan?

"Guys!" Krillin screamed as he put the scouter back on. "We don't have time for this. We need to get this done and get back to Gohan. I think something is wrong."

"The brat is still alive so he is fine." Vegeta sneered, but he did consent and stopped arguing with Bulma.

Krillin rolled his eyes, but didn't say anything. He really wasn't up for arguing with Vegeta about this. It would just be a waste of time.

"Alright, Vegeta, you're closest to the last Dragon Ball so I'll direct you to it." Bulma said. "Krillin, go meet up with Piccolo. Vegeta will join you soon."

"Right," Krillin replied before lifting off the ground. He looked towards where Gohan was fighting before sighing. "Little buddy, I don't know what you are planning, but I hope you do it soon."

***DBZ***

An aggravated Piccolo dropped down from the sky into the small town where the Dragon Ball was located. He understood that Gohan sent them away to get the Dragon Balls like this because it would be faster, but sensing Gohan's ki dropped made him hate this plan. Right now all he wanted was to throw away this plan and send collecting this Dragon Ball to Krillin so he could go help Gohan.

But he knew he couldn't do that. He was already here and leaving it to Krillin would waste time as the warrior was nowhere near this village.

Piccolo yanked his scouter out of his pocket. "Bulma, I'm here. Where am I heading?"

"Hmm, it looks like it is in front of you." Bulma said. "Just walk forward."

The Namekian stared forward and didn't see the Dragon Ball. All he saw were a bunch of people around, talking and laughing, completely unaware of the danger the planet was in.

Sighing, Piccolo started forward, pushing rudely through the crowd. He was not polite or kind like Gohan or Goku in situations like this, especially when his best friend was fighting for his life. That really made him impatient to get this job done.

"Am I getting near it?" Piccolo asked as he shoved a man to the side and continued forward.

"What's in front of you? It should be there." Bulma replied.

Piccolo looked up and a scowl formed. Gohan definitely owed him for this. "I thought the Red Ribbon Army was destroyed by Goku."

A snort came from Bulma. "Are you serious?"

"Seems like an independent unit with how small this building is." Piccolo replied as he walked towards the small building which had the Red Ribbon Army insignia on its door. Without wasting a moment, he blasted the door down, destroying parts of the wall with his attack and stepped through the smoke and debris to be met with shocked expressions from the members of the unit inside. "Can Goku do nothing right when destroying something? Kills Frieza, Frieza comes to Earth with mechanized parts. Kills Cooler, Cooler returns with a new metal body. Destroys the Red Ribbon Army, leaves an independent unit of it alone in a small village."

A laugh came from Bulma's side.

Piccolo ignored her as he sent a weak ki blast at members of the unit. Apparently it wasn't too weak as it sent the shocked members flying into the walls, but they were still alive so it didn't concern him.

"Hey! Freeze!" A member of the army yelled as he pointed a machine gun at Piccolo.

Piccolo's eyes shot lasers at the man which hit his gun and caused it to explode and send him flying into a the desk behind him. "Argh, why do I have to deal with this stupidity? Should have sent Vegeta here."

"We do not wish death on these people, Piccolo." Krillin scolded with an amused tone to his voice. "Just find the Dragon Ball there."

"Gohan owes me for making me put up with this idiotic army." Piccolo growled as he swung a member of the unit at some of the others so hard it sent them flying backwards and slamming into a wall. Seriously, when would they realize it was best to quit at this point and just let him get on with getting the Dragon Ball?

***DBZ***

"**Come on, do tell me this is not all the prideful saiyan has to offer." Ryazan sneered as he looked down at the kid on his hands and knees in front of him. "This is boring me." **

**Gohan coughed violently, blood flying from his mouth and splattering on the ground. He lifted his head and looked up at Ryazan with a defiant gleam in his eyes. His bloody lips slowly curled into a smirk. **

**Ryazan took in the smirk that the beaten and bloody saiyan was displaying and immediately slammed his foot into Gohan's face, sending the kid flying backwards. His back hit the ground and Gohan didn't even get a second of looking at the blue sky before a shadow was looming over him and a foot slamming into his chest. "Prideful to the very end, aren't you, Warrior Gohan?" Ryazan sneered as he lifted his foot again and slammed it back into Gohan's ribs, and a very satisfied smirk graced his lips when he heard them crack. **

Goku glared at the scene in front of him. It reminded him too much of when Raditz did the same thing to him all those years ago. He knew his son was stronger than this and he was sure he had a plan, but he needed to act soon. Very soon, or Goku was going to have to once again break the rules and go save his son.

Back when his son was fighting Cell, he refused to intervene until Piccolo knocked some sense into him. Because of that, he would never hesitant to intervene to save his son when he needed it, even if he was dead and it meant breaking the rules.

"Uh, Goku," Mijorin said warily as he felt his friend's power level start to rise rapidly. He started to move away from the angry father. "Maybe letting him watch his son was a bad idea."

Goku watched as his son refused to scream out in pain. His son refused to show the pain Goku knew he was in. Having been in a similar position with Raditz, Goku knew having someone stomp on your chest repeatedly and hitting those broken ribs was a horrendous feeling. "Ryazan, you go too far." He growled. How dare he hurt his son like this? He called saiyans barbarians, but he looked no better right here as he stomped on his son's chest. His thirteen year old boy was being tortured on the Lookout, and for what reason?! What was Gohan's plan? Why was Ryazan being so harsh?

"Goku, calm down now." King Kai ordered. "You can't do anything to help your son."

"And your friends will return soon." Olibu pointed out.

"But not in time." Goku growled, eyes flashing between teal and black. Piccolo and the others wouldn't make it in time to help his son. They hadn't even called the dragon yet! Who knew how long it would take them to get all the Dragon Balls?

**A chuckle was suddenly heard, which stopped Ryazan from stomping on Gohan's chest again. His eyes moved down to the half-saiyan, who was shaking with his chuckles. "Have you finally gone insane from pain?"**

"**No, I just thought of something perfect for you." Gohan said. He lifted his hand off the ground. "See this?" A ki ball formed in his hand and with a swish flick of his wrist, the ki ball flew from his wrist and into Ryazan's face where it exploded. From the blast came smoke that blinded Ryazan, who just waved it out of his face. **

"**And what was that supposed to do?" Ryazan sneered. **

**With some pain from his broken ribs, Gohan jumped to his feet with a smirk. "Absolutely nothing!" He shouted as he spread his hands out on either side of his face and shouted, "Solar Flare!"**

"**Solar what?" Ryazan shouted before he was screaming in pain and grabbing his eyes. "What the hell did you do? BRAT!"**

A blinding white light filled the crystal ball, causing the warriors and Kais to look away or risk being blinded like Ryazan.

Goku started to calm down, staring at the ground to avoid getting blinded by the move. If Gohan was doing that attack, then it meant he was on the move and thinking of a plan. He was planning to hide and recover somewhat while he thought of what to do.

"Geez, did we have to get blinded to?" West Kai growled.

"**Gohan!"**

Goku looked back up at the crystal ball at Dende's voice. They were now in the destroyed room in the temple from earlier. Gohan was collapsed against the wrecked wall, head bowed forward as he didn't have the strength to hold it up. A very worried Dende was kneeling by his friend's side.

**Gohan coughed violently in response, a mixture of blood and saliva shooting out of mouth as he did. This resulted in the half-saiyan groaning in pain and wrapping an arm around his chest. **

"**Hold on, I'll have you back in fighting shape in no time." Dende assured him as he put his hands over Gohan's chest. **

**Gohan glanced out of the hole in the wall with a shudder. It wasn't the ideal place to hide since it was too close to Ryazan, but he couldn't drag himself farther away with his injuries. Luckily, Dende realized this fast enough and came to him once again. **

"**Damn you!" Ryazan screamed, hands still clasped over his eyes. "I am done, Warrior Gohan! As soon as I can see again, you will face my full wrath! You will die a slow, painful death!"**

**Grimacing, Gohan turned away from looking at him.**

**Dende looked up from his healing to see Gohan's face. "This can't go on,** **Gohan. You need to ascend to the second level. You can't handle him at this level." **

"He's right about that." Pikkon said. "If he continues at this level, he will die."

"Then it's a good thing they are collecting the Dragon Balls. If something does happen, they can wish him back to life." King Kai replied with a worried frown. "Though…" He glanced over at Goku, who was shifting a glare from the crystal ball to King Kai and back.

"My son is not allowed to die at such a young age." Goku growled.

"Oh, I realize." King Kai retorted. "Always arriving just in time to save him from death, EVEN IF IT MEANS BREAKING THE RULES, GOKU!"

Goku winced a bit at the volume and rubbed his ears. "Do you have to be so loud? I already apologized for that!"

"For what?" Arqua asked curiously.

"There may have been an incident a couple years ago where Gohan was fighting Bojack and he was in trouble and everyone else was out of commission so I may have gone down to Earth just for a second to save him." Goku said sheepishly, scratching his cheek as he looked up at the sky.

"BOJACK?!" West, East, and South Kai screeched in shock, completely disregarding the fact that Goku admitted to breaking the rules.

"Ah, so it was your son who took out Bojack?" Grand Kai said amused. "But really, Goku, you cannot go around breaking the rules like that, even if it is your son. You have to let him take care of things by himself now."

"Who's Bojack?" Olibu asked.

"That's a story for another time." King Kai replied.

**The half-saiyan didn't reply for a while as he looked dazedly at the floor. **

**He eventually shook his head and looked at Dende, who had gone back to concentrating on his healing. "I can't." His head turned to look through the hole to see Ryazan looking around the Lookout. **

"**Where are you, Warrior Gohan? Get out here and face me!" Ryazan screamed. "Don't be a coward and hide from your death! Face it like a true warrior!"**

"**Why can't you?" Dende demanded, trying his best to ignore Ryazan's screaming for Gohan's head. **

**Gohan shifted a bit on the ground as he started to feel a lot better with his injuries disappearing. "It's my trump card for when his immortality is gone. If I show it now, I'll have nothing to surprise him with when he is mortal once more. I need him to keep thinking that I don't have any more power than what I am showing so he'll continue to be confident and not get desperate and do anything crazy like Cell or Frieza did. Fighting isn't just about raw strength. It is both a physical and a mental battle. And right now his mentality is strong, but when he is mortal, I am going to destroy it." **

"**That is all well and good, Gohan, but it won't matter if you are killed before the wish can be made." Dende argued. "Or he brings out another trick that can ruin your whole plan!" **

**The half-saiyan shook his head. "I know how to take a beating. Piccolo, Vegeta, and my dad made sure of that, so just trust me here, Dende." **

**Dende looked up at Gohan, hands falling to his lap as he finished healing. "I've always trusted you. Back on Namek, you were the first person to jump in to save me from Dodoria. You didn't know me and I didn't know you before that. You had no reason to jump in and risk yourself to save me, but you did. So I trust you, more than Krillin, more than Piccolo, and even more than your dad. So I trust with my life, but I don't want your life sacrificed for it." **

**Gohan smiled at his friend. He raised his hand and curled it into a tight fist. "Who said anything about sacrificing any lives, my friend? The more I get beat up and the more you heal me, the stronger I get. Remember, I am a saiyan. This battle is only just getting started." **

**A/N: Please Review! **


	4. Ch4: Round 1: Gohan vs Ryazan pt 3

**Disclaimer: I don't own Dragon Ball Z**

**A/N: Thanks for reviewing!**

**Earth's Protector**

**Chapter 4: Round 1: Gohan vs Ryazan pt. 3**

"Your son is certainly confident." Pikkon said.

Goku nodded his head with a smile as they watched Gohan charge out of the temple and at Ryazan once more.

"But to go so far as to let himself get beat up just to get healed and get stronger? Isn't that a bit insane?" Pikkon continued.

"I hardly think that is his plan. It might just be a convenience for him at this point while he is waiting for the wish to be made so he can ascend." Goku replied thoughtfully. "I never considered the fact that he might be holding back because he doesn't want to reveal all of his tricks to an immortal opponent."

"It's a smart, but very dangerous move." Olibu agreed.

"And one he is most likely only doing because he does have a healer there." Grand Kai suggested calmly from where he was watching the battle. Gohan dodged an attack and retaliated with a roundhouse kick which connected with Ryazan's neck and sent him flying through a wall of the temple. It seemed that each time Gohan was beaten down and healed by his little friend, he came back showing more and more power. Before his last healing, he couldn't touch Ryazan, but now he was displaying more strength then before.

**Ryazan launched himself out of the temple and at Gohan, eyes glowing in absolute rage. "What the hell was that? You should not be moving like this. I know I broke all of your ribs!" **

**Gohan only smirked in reply. Though his injuries were healed, he was still covered in the blood and his clothes were rips so Ryazan couldn't tell that anything had changed. He wanted to keep it like that for as long as possible. **

"**Don't you dare get cocky now! I am hardly through." Ryazan retorted before he started powering up. "Now, young warrior, I will show you what fear is!" **

**Gohan calmly watched as the wind picked up all around the Lookout with Ryazan in the center of the vortex of wind he was creating. Parts of the destroyed Lookout lifted into the air to join the wind that was circling around Ryazan. "Fear?" Gohan repeated before he tilted his head to the side to avoid getting hit by a piece of flying rubble. "Fear is all in the mind. The moment I feel fear is the moment I lose. I am not afraid of you or death. If I don't fear it, it means I can come at you with everything I have and if it isn't enough, then I am a failure at protecting the Earth." **

**The wind around Ryazan slowed down until there was nothing but a blue aura around him. "Big talk for one so young." Ryazan replied with a smirk. "Let's see if you can back it up." **

**Ryazan suddenly disappeared and reappeared back Gohan, slamming his elbow down, but the half-saiyan just barely got an arm up to block the attack. **

"**Quick question," Gohan replied without turning to face Ryazan. "What round are we even on?"**

**His smartass question was answered with a leg slamming into his back which sent him flying forward. Gohan slammed his hands on the floor and flipped himself over. He immediately ducked under Ryazan's second kick, but wasn't able to dodge the ki blast that was sent at point blank into his face. The force of the blast sent him flying back to hit a pillar. **

"**Geez, why are there so many pillars on the Lookout." Gohan whined as he grabbed the back of his head where it hit the pillar. "And what are they made of? They always hurt so much." **

"He is trying to piss off Ryazan, isn't he?" South Kai said with a frown. "Does he not understand how dangerous that is?"

King Kai snorted. "He is hardly trying that. He is so much like his father that I bet he is being completely serious right now about the pillars."

"Well, I've been slammed into those pillars before too. They do hurt a lot. I think Mr. Popo or Kami chose to make those pillars out of the material that would hurt the most if you slammed into them." Goku argued, to the disbelief of everyone around which made West Kai mutter, "An idiotic father-son pair.

"And from my experience, saying things like that in front of the enemy does make them think you are mocking them, even when you're not." Goku continued on, seemingly not hearing West Kai.

"Which is why you should keep your mouth shut!" King Kai snapped. "Both you and Gohan."

"**I will not be made a fool of!" Ryazan shouted as he charged at Gohan, who was still leaning against the pillar. He looked up in surprise at Ryazan's shout. **

"**Huh?" Was all Gohan got out before a foot slammed into his chest and sent him flying through the pillar. **

***DBZ***

"Okay," Gohan moaned as he jumped to his feet. He shook his head and looked at the room he slammed into. "That hurt. Geez, what has got him so frustrated?" He rubbed the back of his head as he looked at the destroyed pillars and then the demolished wall. "Man, Mr. Popo is not going to be happy with me when this over. But it's not like it's my fault, but of course I'll be blamed for this."

Gohan sighed. He hoped that the others were almost ready to make that wish. He could easily take a beating, especially when he had Dende around to heal him so he could take beating after beating, but it's not like he actually enjoyed it. All he wanted was to ascend and take out Ryazan already because this was getting annoying and he was worried that Ryazan would draw his sword on him again. He was actually surprised that Ryazan even put it away to begin with. That was worrisome. It had to mean something.

A terrified scream broke Gohan from his thoughts. His head snapped around to stare at the hole in the wall in horror. He knew that scream, having heard it when he was on Namek. "Dende!"

Running out of the room and towards where he heard the scream come from, Gohan felt sweat drip down his face. How could he have been so idiotic? It was only a matter of time before Ryazan found Dende, especially with how they kept slamming each other into the temple. This is why the Lookout was not an ideal location for a fight. He never should have let Dende stay up here!

Gohan skidded to a halt outside the temple where he saw Ryazan holding Dende in the air by his collar and his sword drawn, clenched tightly in his fist. At the sound of his exit from the temple, Ryazan looked over at him while Dende whimpered in pain.

"Ryazan!" Gohan shouted, holding his hands up in a placating manner. Before continuing, he took a deep breath to calm himself. Ryazan could not know how unnerved he was about having Dende captured. "Let's not do anything rash now." He glanced to the side to see Mr. Popo kneeling on the ground. Good, he was alive at least. Now he just had to get him and Dende off the Lookout in one piece.

"You know," Ryazan said, smirking at the half-saiyan. "I really was wondering how you were able to continue to fight despite your injuries. But now I know. When I was on Namek years ago, I learned that some Namekians had healing abilities. I never expected to find a Namekian on Earth, but it surely clears up a lot of things for me." He roughly shook Dende, who whimpered a bit in fear.

"Ryazan, he has nothing to do with this. Put him down." Gohan ordered. This really was a role reversal. Usually it was him in trouble during a fight and he needed to be saved by someone, whether that someone was his dad, Piccolo, Krillin, or hell, even Vegeta. They have all saved him at some point in the past and that was what he used to. He wasn't used to being on this side of the situation. He never realized just how scary it was. One wrong move and his friend was dead. The realization made his heart pound frantically against his ribs. Mental note: after this was all over, never get caught by an opponent again. He did not want to put his friends through this ever again.

***DBZ***

"This is bad." Goku said with a frown. "Whenever Gohan was in a situation like this in the past, he was the one captured, but he had some semblance of control since he is a fighter and could defend himself as need be, but Dende can't!"

"And if Dende gets killed here, that means the Dragon Balls will be gone and all hope of defeating Ryazan will be lost!" King Kai cried frantically. "This is bad! So very bad!"

"Gohan won't let his friend die." Goku reassured the North Kai. Yes, Gohan would protect Dende, but that still left him worried about what would happen from this point on. Ryazan knew about Dende now. That was dangerous.

***DBZ***

"Piccolo!" Krillin shouted as he caught up to the Namekian who was flying quickly towards the Lookout. "I see you got your Dragon Ball from that Red Ribbon independent unit."

The Namekian shot Krillin a very dark look. "Never mention it again." He snarled.

Krillin blinked in confusion. What could have been so bad about it? No one in that base was strong enough to give Piccolo any trouble. But with the glare that Piccolo was giving him, perhaps it was in his best interest to just not bring it up. "In any case, we have to make the wish with the Dragon Balls. Where are we going?"

"I know, Krillin, but I want to make it somewhat close to the Lookout so we can reach Gohan and help him as soon as we are finished." Piccolo replied without taking his eyes off the path in front of him.

Krillin looked over at Piccolo. "I know you're worried about Gohan; I am too, but we still shouldn't take the Dragon Balls too close to the Lookout. Ryazan knows about them so it would be best if he isn't able to get to Shenron."

"I know that." Piccolo growled. "But Gohan is struggling against Ryazan. He needs help. I am tired of wasting time while he struggles to survive."

"Dende won't let him die." Krillin replied with a firm smile that spoke of how much he believed in Dende. Dende was a very loyal friend and even if it put him in danger, he wouldn't run from the Lookout when Gohan was fighting alone and needed a healer. Though, that didn't make leaving Gohan to fight by himself any better. It was still a difficult move.

***DBZ***

"He has everything to do with this!" Ryazan retorted. "He is getting in the way of my destroying you. And for that, he must die!"

In the next second, he dropped Dende to the ground and raised his sword. Everything from that point happened so fast that Dende wasn't able to follow it. There was no time to close his eyes so they were opened, but he still wasn't able to follow what happened. All he knew was that there was a loud, fast swishing sound that met his ears and frantic footsteps, but he saw nothing. It wasn't until he felt blood dripping down onto his face that he looked up in absolute horror.

In front of the young guardian of Earth stood Gohan defending him, and in that moment he had jumped in front of him the sword had impaled him all the way through his side. Blood trailed down to the tip of the sword and dripped, dripped, dripped down to Dende's face. Bloody orange and blue fabric torn from Gohan's gi floated down in front of Dende's eyes to the ground.

"Gohan," Dende breathed in shock and horror as he stared at his trembling friend.

Gohan's glazed eyes glared down at the sword. Stupid, energy draining sword. If it didn't drain energy, he would have destroyed it. But he was worried throwing a ki blast at it would have gotten the ki absorbed and not stop it from impaling Dende….so instead he chose to let it drain him instead. Probably not his best move, but he couldn't think of any other action in that one second he had to move to protect Dende.

***DBZ***

Goku stared at his son in horror. His son jumped right in front of the sword coming to claim Dende's life and his payment for that was to get impaled himself. This wasn't just any injury he could walk away from. His little boy was in trouble with an injury like that. If he didn't get healed soon, he would surely die of blood loss. There were some injuries that meant a fight shouldn't be continued.

"He said before he wasn't afraid of Ryazan or death." Pikkon said as he glanced at the shocked and horrified Goku. "There was not an ounce of hesitation when he jumped in front of his friend to take that attack. He knew what would happen, Goku."

"…Gohan would sacrifice anything to protect a friend. I always knew this." Goku replied thickly. And it was because of Gohan's nature to protect his friends like this that Goku always kept an eye on his son. He wanted to make sure he didn't get too reckless…but he couldn't do anything from the Otherworld to stop reckless actions like this. What could he do to help his son while he was dead?

**A violent cough shook Gohan and blood he couldn't spare flew from his mouth and splattered onto Ryazan's shirt. **

"**How idiotic." Ryazan said with a smirk. "You may have saved him for a moment, but as soon as you're dead, he will be joining you in the afterlife. The only thing you've managed to do is temporarily spare him." **

"He has a good point." West Kai muttered. "There is nothing Gohan can do at this point to win."

"If he could get healed…But I guess that is impossible now. Ryazan won't give them the chance." Olibu replied.

Goku gritted his teeth in frustration. He wanted to be down there helping his son with this battle. Fighting an immortal being alone like this was foolish. One of the others should have stayed back to help Gohan so they could switch out to get healed. And now because his son was alone, he was going to die! Ryazan wouldn't let Dende anyway near Gohan to get him healed. Both of them were going to get killed.

"**Dende…." Gohan's breathing hitched for a moment before he continued. "Piccolo and the others will be here soon…Y–" He was forced to stop speaking again as he coughed up some blood as he felt the sword in his side shift. Trembling hands grabbed the silver blade that had a golden aura around it now as it drained him. He held it in place, glazed eyes focusing on Ryazan's hands on the handle. His eyes caught sight of the black band on Ryazan's wrist and the white gem that was now glowing bright gold. "You need to w-warn th-them. D-don't…" A painful hitch in Gohan's breath forced him to stop again. His glazed eyes glared at Ryazan's hands as he saw them shift and pull the sword a bit out just a moment before. He tightened his grip on the sword. The moment this was pulled out, he was going to lose a lot blood and fast. He wasn't sure if that was worse than having his energy drained or not. "…let this sw…sw-sword c-cut them….it's an e-en-energy…dr-draining sw-sword." The half-saiyan was forced to stop as more violent coughs assaulted him. "….He'll steal their energy…..f-for his own with it." **

**An amused, mocking chuckle came from Ryazan. "You knew that and yet you stepped right in front of it to give me all your energy." The Zindart warrior said with a smirk. "You are even more foolish than I thought." **

"It's the sword?!" North and West Kai shouted in surprise.

"And he knew? He's knowingly making Ryazan even stronger!" East Kai cried with a frown.

"With how much power Gohan has at his disposal," Goku didn't finish. His son knew the consequences of jumping in front of this sword. He knew his energy would be drained and he knew it would kill him, but he did it anyway to protect Dende. He protected his friend. He protected the Dragon Balls so the wish could be made to rid Ryazan of his immortality. There wasn't an ounce of hesitation in his actions to do what he had to for the Earth's safety and that made Goku proud. The last thing he wanted was his son dead, but his actions here showed him so much.

"Your son is an amazing individual." Sarta murmured.

"But it was a foolish move still." Pikkon argued with a frown. "His energy is being drained and he has received a mortal wound. He will not be able to fight and with how strong he is making Ryazan, I do not believe it will be possible for your friends to win."

Goku did not reply, but he did agree. His son did something brave, but also reckless. He was making the enemy too strong for anyone else to handle. Only Gohan would have a chance to win after this, but with his injuries and loss of energy, even he would be unable to do it. It looked like Earth was in for trouble unless a miracle happened.

***DBZ***

"Gohan," Dende whispered.

"Leave."

Dende looked up at Gohan in shock at the harsh tone he just used. "What?"

"Leave NOW!" Gohan screamed before he broke down into another coughing fit. He was losing too much blood and energy. He needed to come up with a plan before he was completely drained of all his energy. But he couldn't think. Blood loss and energy rapidly draining left him unable to focus his mind to come up with a plan. But he was focused enough to realize that Dende needed to get out of here. He gave him the message so now he needed to run and warn the others.

"I can't!" Dende cried. "You're hurt! I need to heal you."

Gohan's eyes met Ryazan's before he looked over his shoulder at Dende with a glare. "_Do not argue with me on this._" He growled. "There is no time for healing anymore. Get out of here, wait for the others and warn them." He lowered his voice. "You have to live, Dende. Mr. Popo!"

Mr. Popo suddenly appeared behind Gohan and grabbed Dende's wrist. "I understand, Gohan." The assistant-deity said. One of the last things he wanted to do was abandon Gohan up here when he was in trouble, but he understood where the half-saiyan was going with this. Dende needed to survive or all of this was for nothing.

A small smile graced Gohan's lips as Mr. Popo started to pull a clearly distressed Dende away. "Everything's fine." He lied.

And all four of them knew it was a lie.

"Don't think I'll let anyone escape here alive!" Ryazan shouted as he forcefully yanked the sword out of Gohan's side, cutting his hands on the blade up as he did.

With the sword no longer in him to keep him up, Gohan fell face down onto the ground while Ryazan turned to a scared Dende, whose eyes were locked on the extremely pale Gohan on the ground, blood pooling all around him.

Face resting on the ground, Gohan groaned in pain. Just breathing was hurting so much as his muscles expanded and contracted with each breath he took. It felt like his muscles were being stretched beyond their capacity and it was ripping them apart even more.

"Gohan!" Dende cried as Mr. Popo continued to pull him away.

"Don't worry. You'll be joining him soon!" Ryazan lifted his hand, energy already charging up there. "Now die, you worthless insectoid!"

Dende's eyes widened in fear as he stared at the ki blast that was meant to end his life. Fear filled him up, but he despised that feeling. Gohan risked so much without showing an ounce of fear to protect him and now he was paying for it. Dende felt that he should not be feeling scared after what Gohan sacrificed for him. Why couldn't he do more to help his friend with this battle? All he ever did was hide and healed Gohan when needed. He never had the bravery or courage that Gohan had to face powerful enemies headfirst and to take a beating from them. Even when he was weaker than the enemy like Frieza on Namek, he never ran away. Dende wished he could have that same bravery. But he didn't. Instead, he hid and trusted Gohan or someone else strong to protect him. It made him feel so weak, especially in a situation like this.

Tired eyes looked up from the ground to see Ryazan preparing to kill Dende. Gohan's eyes shifted to Dende to see him looking so scared as Mr. Popo tried to pull him away faster. He looked so scared….so scared…so scared….the expression on Dende's face looked like one that Gohan wore as a child when facing powerful opponents that he couldn't handle and when they were about to kill him or whenever he pissed Vegeta off as a child. A pained chuckle escaped Gohan. To think he was so scared of Vegeta when he was young and now he taunted him for fun.

But that fear he felt as a child froze him in place so he was sure to meet his end, but it than that someone always saved him…His eyes moved down to the ground so he could see all his blood straining the white tiles. So much of his blood was being lost and he was finding it hard to concentrate, but he had to force himself to stay conscience. Ryazan was his responsibility. Dende was his friend he was supposed to protect. He had a job to do and bleeding out from his side was not going to stop him.

Just as Ryazan was about to launch his attack at the guardian, a hand wrapped around his ankle and yanked hard so as the ki blast was released, he was falling flat on his face. This caused the ki blast he released to slam into the ground, creating a huge crater, right in front of Dende, instead of hitting him.

"D-don't you dare think we're through."

Ryazan turned his head to glare down at the weak Gohan, who had turned his head up, chin resting on the floor to glare up at him.

Dende and Mr. Popo froze in shock to stare at Gohan's trembling hand that was still wrapped around Ryazan's ankle.

"Until I am dead, you won't touch Dende." Gohan said. He didn't even bother to look at Dende and Mr. Popo as he said, "Why aren't you moving? Get out of here!"

"No," Dende whispered, but didn't get a choice as Mr. Popo started to pull him along again. "No, Mr. Popo." He looked over at the guardian's assistant. "We can't! He's in no condition to fight!"

"We would only be in the way at this point." Mr. Popo whispered. "Please, Dende. Gohan knows what he is doing."

"He doesn't know anything!" Dende shouted, staring desperately at Gohan who suddenly got kicked in the face by Ryazan so he was forced to release the ankle he grabbed hold of. The force of the kick sent him skidding back along the ground, making a pained groan escape him as his muscles in his side pulled and screamed in protest at being moved.

***DBZ***

"I have to say I am agreeing with Dende on this one." King Kai said with a frown. "That is not an injury he can fight with. He's already losing too much blood. Fighting will only make him die from blood loss much faster."

"**You certainly are a stubborn one." Ryazan said as he stood up and picked up his fallen sword. "I did not think you had that much energy left. But it is all pointless now. With a wound like that, you will not survive for much longer." **

"**Don't you dare…" Gohan struggled as he pushed himself up to his knees. The movement just brought him agony as he coughed up more blood. "Look down on me." He raised his hand and gathered a ball of yellow ki there. **

**Instead of throwing the ki at Ryazan, he slammed the ki ball into the hole in his side, and though it caused him great torment, he refused to scream out in pain as he used the hot ki to seal the hole shut. **

"Your son is crazy!" Tijorn said with a grin. "I like him. He certainly has guts."

Goku nodded. His son really has changed over the years. Back when he was just a child, he would have never done some of these things. He was so brave and strong now, and able to make the hard decisions in a split second. Watching his son change from a scared child into a competent, ingenious fighter made him so pride. His progress was amazing.

**The hot ki slowly thinned out as it entered his side and made its way to his back as it burned the wound shut to stop the bleeding. It was agonizing, but there have been worse pain he felt in the past. **

***DBZ***

Krillin and Piccolo whipped around to stare in the direction of the Lookout.

"Gohan," Piccolo said. He looked at the five Dragon Balls on the ground. "Damn it, there is no time for this. I'm going to–"

Vegeta dropped to the ground in front of the two Z fighters before Piccolo could finish. He dropped his two Dragon Balls to the ground next to the other flashing yellow balls and ripped the scouter off his ear. As soon as the wish was made, they were going to the Lookout and he didn't want this thing in his way. "Well, make the wish." He sneered. He looked over at the Lookout as he felt the sharp decrease in Gohan's ki as well. What the hell was that stupid brat playing at? He was stronger than this so what did stupid thing did he do to get himself so injured?

"Eternal dragon, by your name I summon you forth! Shenron!" Krillin shouted.

The sky above them turned dark as night before a bright golden light shined out of each Dragon Ball and connected as the light rose into the sky, twisting around into the form of Shenron.

***DBZ***

Ryazan looked away from Gohan when he noticed the sky turn dark out of nowhere. "What is this?" It shouldn't be nighttime yet and certainly shouldn't just happen out of nowhere like this. Out of the corner of his eye, he noticed a bright golden light in the distance and looked towards it to see a massive dragon appearing from it. "WHAT?!"

Gohan looked up with a smirk. "Shenron." He whispered, wiping some blood away from his lips. "It's about time, guys."

Ryazan turned back around at Gohan's voice and slammed his foot into the half-saiyan's face. "I should have known there were Dragon Balls here when I saw that Namekian brat. Is this what you were waiting for? You think the dragon can save you now?!"

Gohan grabbed the ankle of the foot still on his face. He yanked the foot off and swung the warrior away from him, but with how weak Gohan was at the moment, Ryazan didn't go far and easily righted himself on the floor.

***DBZ***

"I will grant you two wishes." Shenron's deep, rough voice filled the vicinity. "Make sure to speak your words carefully."

"Can you rid the warrior known as Ryazan of his immortality?" Piccolo asked, staring up at the dragon with a frown. If this didn't work, they were screwed and wasted so much of their time that could have been spent coming up with another plan. This had to work. Without this, there was no way to win this battle and they had no backup plans.

"It will be done." Shenron replied as his eyes glowed red.

"Please let this work." Krillin whispered.

***DBZ***

Ryazan's body suddenly started to glow with a golden aura, making him look down at his hands in surprise. "What is this?" He demanded, turning to look at Gohan. "What did you do?"

"Me?" Gohan asked innocently. "I've been here the whole time. What could I have possibly done?"

The golden aura around Ryazan died down to nothingness and suddenly, the warrior felt empty inside, like something was missing from him. He looked at his hands, then at the dragon, and back to Gohan as something clicked in his head. This feeling of nothingness was the feeling of normalcy. "YOU!" Ryazan roared, lunging forward and wrapping his hand around Gohan's throat as he lifted him off the ground. "You took my immortality away!"

Gohan gave him a small mocking grin. "Did I?"

Ryazan's hand tightened on Gohan's neck for a moment, making it incredibly hard for him to breathe. But after a second, Ryazan released him and turned around. He powered up and raced off towards Shenron, or tried to at least.

Gohan instantly knew his plan and the moment he was free, he released all the power he had left. His side burned incredibly, but he forced himself to ignore the pain and instead he focused his attention on chasing after Ryazan. With all the strength his body had left, he appeared in front of Ryazan and tackled him out of the air and back onto the Lookout. _"PICCOLO!"_

***DBZ***

"_PICCOLO!" _Piccolo winced at the shout inside his head. What was Gohan doing? He knew he didn't have to scream in a telepathic conversation.

"_Gohan? Are you alright?" _Piccolo responded.

"_I'm fine. There's no time. You need to tell Shenron to leave. You don't have a second wish." _Gohan told him.

Piccolo was tempted to ask what was going on, but with how panicked Gohan sounded right now, he thought it best to do what he said with no questions asked. "Shenron, we do not have a second wish. You may leave."

"What are you doing?" Vegeta demanded, turning to the Namekian as a golden light rose up from the Dragon Balls to Shenron before his whole body glowed with the golden aura, blinding the three warriors.

"Gohan said to send him away." Piccolo explained as the Dragon Balls shot into the air before zipping off in different directions around the Earth. Wasting no time, Piccolo powered up and lifted off into the air. "We need to get to the Lookout now!"

***DBZ***

A very tensed Goku watched the crystal ball. His son's plan worked. Ryazan no longer had immortality, but what would happen now? Gohan wasn't in any condition to ascend to the second level of super saiyan. It would put too much a strain on his body that he couldn't handle with his injuries. He may have sealed the wound in his side shut, but that didn't mean it was healed. It just stopped him from bleeding out. It still had to be hurting a lot.

"**You!" Ryazan roared as he kicked Gohan off of him and sent the half-saiyan flying through the air until he landed on the ground, gold hair and teal eyes disappearing as he fell out of his transformation. Ryazan noticed that with interest before he turned back around and watched the Dragon Balls shoot off in random directions. With a furious scowl, he turned to look at Gohan, who had half pushed himself up, but did not have the energy to move farther than that. "You mock me." He picked up his sword from the ground. "You interfere in my killing." He walked over to Gohan, dragging the tip of his sword across the ground. "And then you go and steal **_**my**_** immortality from me." **

**Ryazan's foot slammed into Gohan's chest, sending him back to the ground to pin him there. He stared coldly down at the teenage warrior. "I will make sure your death is the most painful thing in existence and then we'll see who isn't **_**afraid**_**."**

**Gohan glared defiantly up at him. Having used the last of his energy to tackle Ryazan out of the air, he had no strength left to resist. **

**Ryazan raised his sword and thrust it downward. **

**Gohan's eyes followed the blade. He didn't even get a chance to flinch before it was being plunged into his stomach. His whole body jerked in reaction to the pain and a loud, pain filled scream tore itself from his lips. His head fell to the side and his eyes watched as blood started to pool around his body. **

**A harsh mocking laugh came from Ryazan. "How does that feel, Warrior Gohan? You will suffer until your life has finally drained from your body!"**

"Gohan!" Goku shouted, leaning forward as he watched his son be pinned to the Lookout by a sword. His mouth formed into an angry scowl and his black eyes flashed to teal with a furious light in them then back to black. "Ryazan!"

Pikkon and Olibu each put a hand on Goku's shoulder in an attempt to calm him. They couldn't understand how hard this was for him to see his son, but they could somewhat understand. When they were alive, they had friends and were in battles with them. They saw them suffer as all warriors do when in battles so it was hard to stay calm when someone they cared about was being tortured like this.

Really, who could do this a child? Even if this child was a warrior, he was still a kid. Those with evil in their hearts really had no morals about hurting kids.

**A gold shine wrapped around the sword as it drained Gohan of his energy once more. **

"**I'm going to enjoy watching you die. And after you are dead, I want you to know, I will find your little Namekian friend and kill him. Along with him, I will killed all your friends, and your mother, and your father, and then steal the life of this worthless planet!"**

**A laugh escaped Gohan, but it soon turned into a painful groan. He turned his head to look up at Ryazan. "Jokes on you. My dad's already dead." He said with a pained grin. **

"**Then you can go join him in hell!" Ryazan sneered and he pushed the blade farther down, eliciting a pained cry from Gohan. **

**Gohan's hands clawed at the ground, scratching at the smooth tile beneath them. The feeling of the blade being pushed farther into the tiled floor resulted in the sharp edges of the blade cutting him even more. He thought getting stabbed hurt, but having a sword pushed even more in like this was on a whole other level. **

Goku's anger was reaching a whole new level. The anger he felt when Krillin was killed by Frieza was way below the anger he was feeling now. This was his son. No one was allowed to harm his son like this. How dare Ryazan torture him like this? Seeing Ryazan act like this made him think of Frieza. When he first heard of Ryazan's story and how Frieza destroyed his race, he felt pity for him. But now, he felt nothing but hatred. Ryazan lost himself in his desire for revenge and it turned him evil. And now he was taking it out on his son.

His power rose to such a height that Olibu and Pikkon were forced to withdraw their hands from the burning hot ki he was emitting. His eyes started to flicker between black and teal.

***DBZ***

Dende looked over the railing of Korin's Tower, feeling worse and worse by the second as he felt Gohan's ki getting weaker. He hated this. He wished there was more he could do to help. But he couldn't. All he could was hide out at Korin's Tower. His hands curled tightly over the railing as he watched the distance. He could sense the others returning fast. It wouldn't be long until they were back here. They had to get here fast. Gohan needed help and there was no time to waste.

His eyes caught sight of three figures closing him and a weak chuckle of relief escaped him. "Piccolo! Don't stop but listen!" Dende shouted as they approached. He knew with Piccolo's ears that he would hear his shout. "Ryazan has a sword that drains energy. Don't let it cut you!"

Without slowing down, Piccolo changed direction and headed straight up to the Lookout. He gave Dende a look as he passed to show that he heard the guardian.

"Did you hear that?" Piccolo asked the other two.

"Got it." Krillin said, having been close enough to Korin's Tower when Dende shouted to hear the warning. "Sword is dangerous. Don't go near it."

Vegeta roared as his power skyrocketed and a big aura wrapped around his form that soon turned golden. His black eyes turned teal and golden power ran through his back hair before it turned completely golden. With his powered raised, Vegeta raced ahead of Krillin and Piccolo. "Damn brat, you better not die!" He growled.

A scream ripped through the air. A very familiar scream to Krillin and Piccolo who had heard it a lot more than Vegeta had.

"Gohan!" Krillin shouted as he started to fly faster, though he was nowhere near to catching up to Vegeta.

"Oh, hell no!" Vegeta growled as he flew over the edge of the Lookout before he landed on it, glaring at Ryazan and the pinned Gohan. "You are not allowed to kill that brat. Since his idiot of father is already dead so I can't kill him, the right to kill his brat belongs to me."

Ryazan stared at him blankly while Gohan shot Vegeta a pain look filled with disbelief.

"The hell, Vegeta?" Gohan turned his head to the side as he coughed up some blood that splattered on the ground. His hand clawed at the ground as it looked for something to grab hold of to help him through the pain. It wouldn't lessen the pain, but holding anything would give his mind something different to focus on.

Vegeta didn't bother to reply to him as he launched himself at Ryazan. His foot slammed into Ryazan and sent him flying back into the temple once more. Having gotten rid of that nuisance temporarily, Vegeta landed on the ground and glared down at Gohan. "And you, stop making him stronger!"

Painfully, Gohan rolled his eyes. "I would love to." He snarled before moving his eyes to the sword.

"It seems my list of people to kill just keeps on getting bigger and bigger!" Ryazan sneered as he walked out of the temple, completely unharmed from that kick.

"For some reason this reminds me of Cell." Krillin said as he landed on the Lookout.

"Really?" Vegeta snorted. "I would have said Frieza. Both space tyrants obsessed with immortality."

"Like you?" Gohan croaked.

Vegeta looked down at the half-saiyan. "You know, if you weren't already dying, I would blast you into oblivion." He glared at the bald monk. "And what are you waiting for? Get the brat to Dende. I will handle Ryazan."

Piccolo landed next to Vegeta before looking over his shoulder at Gohan. "You did good holding him off until you got impaled and allowed him to get stronger with your energy."

"You're never going to let me forget this, are you?" Gohan asked with a pained grin that soon disappeared as he coughed up more blood.

"No," Piccolo reached behind him and grabbed the sword hilt. "Let this be a very good lesson to you, Gohan. Don't go getting impaled!" With that, he yanked the sword out of Gohan's stomach and tossed it to the side. "Move now, Krillin. There's not much time until he bleeds out."

It seemed Piccolo wasted his breathe speaking since Krillin had already picked Gohan up and was flying off the Lookout.

Vegeta shot a glare at Piccolo and sneered, "I hardly need your help to kill Ryazan."

"Drop the arrogance, Vegeta." Piccolo retorted as he removed his cape and turban. "With how much of Gohan's energy he stole, he is on a whole new level than he was earlier." He paused and looked around the Lookout. "Gohan destroyed the Lookout…"

Vegeta turned to look at him in disbelief. "Forget the Lookout!" He growled before he fell into a stance and leveled his glare onto Ryazan.

"The same transformation as that kid." Ryazan sneered. "And a Namekian. How wonderful, a saiyan and Namekian again. But this time, they are both adults. At least I am no longer a babysitter."

Piccolo snorted. "You're a horrible babysitter if you go around treating all kids like that."

"Didn't you beat the kid up all the time when he was four?" Vegeta retorted.

"That's different. I was not babysitting him. I was training him to be a warrior and I never beat him to an inch of his life." Piccolo replied with a scowl. "Unlike you."

"I never got that far in my attempts to kill him." Vegeta snapped. "Not for lack of trying, mind you, because I certainly tried. But like his father, he is so damn stubborn."

***DBZ***

Goku whacked his forehead.

"I feel as if I should report you all for child abuse." King Kai muttered.

"While you're at it, you can report Garlic Jr., the Ginyu Force, Frieza, Turles, Lord Slug, Cooler, Broly, Cell, Bojack, and Ryazan too." Goku replied as he rubbed his temple. The price of being a warrior is that his son was always in dangerous situation where he got hurt horribly.

Vegeta and Piccolo disappeared at the same time and both reappeared on different side of Ryazan. Both started to throw punches and kicks at the alien, but they were all dodged with complete ease.

"I have a feeling this is going to be a lot harder now." West Kai muttered.

**A/N: Please Review!**


	5. Ch5: Round 2: Vegeta & Piccolo vs Ryazan

**Disclaimer: I don't own Dragon Ball Z**

**A/N: Thanks to those who reviewed! **

**Earth's Protector**

**Chapter 5: Round 2: Vegeta &amp; Piccolo vs Ryazan **

The Prince of saiyan jumped over Piccolo's body as the Namekian was sent flying into the temple. After Piccolo was out of the way, Vegeta's feet barely grazed the floor before he was flying at top speed towards Ryazan.

"Hmm," Ryazan said as he sidestepped a punch and slammed his knee into Vegeta's gut, leaving the prince gasping for air and saliva flying out of his mouth. "Teal eyes, gold hair." He stepped away to allow Vegeta to fall to the ground. "That kid could do the same thing. I thought it was natural at first, but then his hair and eyes turned black when I knocked him around a bit. Without it, he was weaker, but then again, maybe the hole in his stomach had something to do with that."

Ryazan lifted his foot and brought it down to stomp on Vegeta's head, but it didn't make it as Vegeta twisted around on the ground and lifted a hand to catch the booted foot. The prince glared at Ryazan with a sneer. "Or maybe it's because you're a weakling who can only get strong by stealing power from others." He rose to his feet, never let go of Ryazan's foot. Once he was up, he twisted his hand around to change his grip from the end of the boot to Ryazan's ankle. "And I won't lose to such a coward!" Vegeta's foot twisted on the ground as he spun his body half around and he whipped Ryazan towards the temple. He stretched out his hands towards him and shot three ki blasts after him.

The Zindart warrior twisted himself in the air to face the ki blasts and fired off two blasts of his own to destroy the first two, but didn't have time to stop the third so he crossed his arm over his face and let it hit him.

As soon as the scorching ki hit his arms, gray smoke filled the air all around him from the explosion of ki. It clouded Ryazan's eyes, but that was hardly an issue for him as he learned a long time ago about how to sense ki.

That ability is how he sensed a coming attack from behind him. He bent his body backwards to avoid the punch, then he slammed his hands on the ground and finished flipping. As he did, his feet slammed into whoever tried to hit him from behind.

Piccolo stumbled a bit back from the feet slamming into his arm, but that was it before he regained his balance and jumped back to put some distance between him and Ryazan.

The distance didn't stay there as Ryazan landed on his feet and pushed down hard on the ground before launching himself at Piccolo. The Namekian immediately launched himself backwards, breaking through one of the temple walls that wasn't destroyed yet. Well, it was destroyed now and Ryazan followed him through the newly made hole.

'_Great, this place is going to be completely destroyed again.' _Piccolo thought annoyed before he was dodging a kick. Though he dodged the kick, he couldn't dodge the elbow that was slammed into his gut. He was gasping for air when Ryazan vanished from in front of him and reappeared behind him where he slammed his knee into Piccolo's neck, which sent the Namekian crashing down through the floor to the chamber below.

Piccolo recovered and rolled through the air to get away from Ryazan who jumped down through the hole.

Ryazan floated in front of Piccolo, arms crossed as he regarded the Namekian with a bored expression. "You're not as fun as that kid. Where did that bald man take him? I want to see Warrior Gohan die withering in pain at my hand."

Piccolo's eyes snapped to Ryazan's face with absolute fury shining in them. No one was allowed to say they wanted to torture Gohan to death in front of him. He did not care if Gohan was stronger than him and could take care of himself. As long as he was alive, if someone wished harm upon his friend, he would fight to protect him, no matter the cost.

***DBZ***

Electricity sparked from Goku's fists as he glared at Ryazan on the screen. "Did he just say that?" He snarled angrily, which was very unlike him. Teal eyes glared at the crystal ball and if glaring could destroy, the crystal ball would have been erased from history about ten seconds ago.

"Goku, calm down." King Kai ordered. "We don't need you doing anything rash."

"Besides, aren't you the one who said you trusted him to handle this?" West Kai asked snidely. "By the way you act, it's like you say you trust him, but you really don't."

Those seemed to be the wrong words to say as Goku transformed, as he rose to his feet to stand at full height so he was towering over the West Kai. And because everyone knew what such a nice guy Goku was, to see him acting like this was quiet frightening. "He is my son." Goku said in such a calm voice that didn't go with his super saiyan state that was a result from his anger. "I trust him and his power. I do not, however, trust Ryazan or any dirty tricks he might pull. My son is my world. If anyone does something against him, I don't care about the rules. I will protect him at all costs." The anger melted away from Goku and with it, so did his transformation. He fell back into his base form and wore an expression akin to helplessness mixed with undying loyalty and determination. "He's my little boy. There have been too many times I was almost too late to save him from death. But I always made it, and even death now won't stop me from going to him if he needs it."

West Kai stumbled away from Goku in shock and a bit of fear. "Just what kind of relationship does he have with his son?" He mumbled to King Kai.

"One of unrelenting faith and trust." King Kai replied quietly. "A little advice, be it Piccolo or Goku, you do not get in their way when it comes to keeping Gohan safe. They both care so much for him. He can be the strongest in the universe, but they'll still worry over his safety. It's a bit ridiculous when you realize they are all warriors, but they do worry. You would do well to remember that and stay out of their path."

***DBZ***

Before Piccolo could move to get to Ryazan, rumbling kept both warriors in place. His eyes moved up to the ceiling to see it trembling. It was trembling so hard that pieces of the destroyed ceiling were starting to fall down. Just tiny little pieces at first, but then bigger pieces started to fall from the ceiling and with that, cracks started to appear on it. And through those cracks, a bright light was shining through.

At that point, Piccolo realized what was coming and quickly moved back to try to put some distance between him and Ryazan.

An explosion ripped through the air as the yellow ki blast tore the ceiling apart above Ryazan, causing pieces of debris to fall all over the place. Ryazan calmly stayed where he was and just blasted the debris that was going to fall onto him into dust.

From the destroyed ceiling, dust and smoke wafted down into the chamber and through it, Piccolo could see Vegeta's shadowed form floating down into the room.

"That idiot. He is pointlessly destroying the Lookout more than it needs to be!" Piccolo growled, fist shaking in annoyance at his side. Did no one understand how annoying it was to rebuild this place?!

"Our fight is not over yet, Ryazan." Vegeta sneered. "So don't go playing with the Namek until it is."

Piccolo scowled. Was Vegeta really on about fighting Ryazan alone? It was obvious by this point that neither of them were strong enough to handle him alone. But this didn't really surprise Piccolo. Vegeta was always idiotic when it came to battles. He always had to fight alone, no matter how outclassed he was.

***DBZ***

Dende's hand gripped the railing of Korin's Tower tightly. Above at the Lookout he could tell that Vegeta and Piccolo had engaged in combat with Ryazan. He could already tell that those two would not be able to defeat Ryazan. There was too much of a power difference between them. There may have been a small possibility for the two of them to win earlier, but with Ryazan having stolen Gohan's energy, he was too strong for them now.

And speaking of Gohan, he could sense Krillin approaching with the half-saiyan. It was completely disturbing that Krillin's power was outshining Gohan's by a great margin. Not that Krillin was weak, but that Gohan was just so strong. Which is why it was so horrifying to feel Gohan's ki be so low and for it to be dropping more and more with each passing second.

This whole situation was a mess and one they wouldn't be in if Ryazan was never immortal to begin with. And all this came to be because the Namekians allowed him to use the Dragon Balls on Namek as a thanks for his help. He was sure after what happened with Frieza that they would never let anyone just use the Dragon Balls without a valid reason, but they should also make a rule of never letting anyone use the Dragon Balls to wish for immortality! Someone with good intentions can ask for it, but that doesn't mean they will always stay that way. Anything can happen to cause someone to change.

"Piccolo and Vegeta are struggling." Korin said softly, interrupting Dende's thoughts.

Dende turned to look at the wise old cat and nodded. "I can tell. It also seems like Ryazan is just toying with them. He took so much power from Gohan, but he isn't displaying all of it."

"Of course not. He's not going to use all that energy when he doesn't need it to take care of Piccolo and Vegeta." Korin replied as he walked over to the railing and looked down at the ground below. It was so far away, but he could still see the crater that Ryazan's ship made. It was pretty big so it was hard to miss even at this height. "Especially when those two aren't fighting together which makes them weak."

"Huh?" Dende looked over at Korin. "What do you mean, Master Korin? I thought they were fighting together."

"No, they are not." Korin said, shaking his head. "They are fighting the same opponent, but they are not fighting together which means they are not in sync and are getting in each other's way. I wouldn't be surprised if they ended up hitting each other because of this."

"Tch, that's not surprising. Vegeta is the type of person that always wants to fight alone. He always thinks he can handle everything without assistance." Yajirobe scoffed from where he was sitting with his arms crossed.

Korin nodded. "He believes everyone to be below him so he refuses to let them fight with him. He sees them as only getting in his way."

"This isn't the time for that." Dende said frustrated. "This is about the Earth's future."

"Dende!"

The guardian looked up to see Krillin slowly floating down to the tower with an unconscious Gohan in his arms. Dende watched in horror as he saw all the blood dropping down from his friend's body and falling to the ground below.

Krillin dropped onto the tower and slowly kneeled down to put the half-saiyan on the ground. "Korin," He looked over at the cat. "Do you have any sensu beans? Not that I don't trust you, Dende, but he's bleeding out pretty fast."

"No, I get it." Dende replied. And he did. A sensu bean only took a few seconds to work, but when he healed, it would take time for the injuries to heal. The more critical the injury, the longer it would take. And Gohan got impaled two times so it would take him a long time to get him back on his feet with his energy restored to fight.

"Unfortunately, I do not have any." Korin said with a frown. "We are going to have to rely on Dende for this one."

Dende looked down at his friend and was horrified that in just those ten seconds, Gohan's blood was already pooled around him. It was too much blood. Even if he healed Gohan, he couldn't restore his blood loss so he would be dizzy and weak from that after this. How was Gohan to fight like this?!

The guardian dropped down to his knees and lifted his hands over Gohan's chest. His ki wrapped around his form and Gohan's body to start the healing process. He couldn't think about the fight or blood loss right now. All that matter was getting Gohan back on his feet. What happened after that was Gohan's decision.

Krillin watched Dende start to heal Gohan for a few seconds before he turned away and looked up towards the sky. He could feel the fight happening above them on the Lookout. Not to mention, all the ripples from the explosions of power reached all the way down here, which just filled the air with tension and suffocating power.

Despite knowing he wasn't strong enough, Krillin wanted to go back up there and help, but he couldn't. He had to stay here and protect Dende and Gohan. Sure, Korin and Yajirobe were here, but they wouldn't be able to do much to help either.

With Dende not being a fighter and Gohan out of commission, they were the last line of defense for Gohan until he was back on his feet. Just keeping his senses on the fight happening high in the heavens above them, he could tell that none of them were a match for Ryazan now. The only one who was would be Gohan so it was their job to protect him until Dende had finished healing him.

***DBZ***

**Piccolo jumped over Vegeta and slammed his foot into Ryazan's arm. He back flipped through the air to move away and the prince of saiyans charged in. Ryazan sidestepped a kick from him, but the kick was only a feint as Vegeta twisted around and slammed his elbow into Ryazan's neck. A sharp gasp of pain briefly escaped Ryazan before it was covered up by a nasty glare. He dodged the next punch from Vegeta and grabbed the arm and Vegeta's armor and swiftly threw him over his shoulder and into a wall. **

**The Zindart warrior raised his hand above his head. In his hand, an electric blue ki ball formed with lightning wrapping around it like an armor. "Lightning barrage!" Ryazan shouted as the ki ball separated from his hand and floated above his head. The ki ball flashed every few seconds like it was actually lightning and with each flash, the ball got bigger and bigger until it was the size of a saiyan space pod. **

"**Now die you scum!" Ryazan screamed as his hand closed into his fist. As he did this, the ki ball blew apart into smaller ki balls that shot all around the room. They burst through walls only to come back inside and rapidly go all over the place with the only area they didn't touch being the space around Ryazan. **

**Piccolo jumped back to dodge one of the ki balls before blasting another one that almost hit his back. His feet hit the wall behind him and he launched himself off it to avoid another barrage of lighting infused ki from hitting him. **

**Vegeta flew out of the wall he was knocked into with a scowl and locked his hands together in front of him as he fired a huge ki blast at the incoming ki balls. As soon as he destroyed the ones in front of him, a volley of them burst through the wall behind him. He managed to dodge the first few, but after that, one hit his side which scorched through his armor and sent electricity coursing through his body. The electricity was so painful that it numbed his muscles for a few seconds. Without being able to move, more and more lightning infused ki balls hit him from all sides, knocking him every which way. **

"Damn, that is very dangerous." Tyron muttered with a frown.

"Did those ki blasts freeze his muscles so he couldn't move to dodge?" Shirax asked darkly. "A dirty trick to stop an opponent in his tracks. Just getting hit once is all it takes to leave him at Ryazan's mercy."

"Vegeta can take it." Goku replied. "He's not weak. Something like this won't stop him."

***DBZ***

Piccolo fired a ki blast at two ki balls that were about to hit Vegeta. Once he did that, he turned his attention back to dodging and destroying the ki balls around him. After seeing what happened to Vegeta after getting hit once, he realized just how important it was to not let one of them hit him. It just went to show that something so small could still cause a lot of damage.

That should be something all of the Z fighters should already know though. After all when Gohan was a kid, he could cause a great amount of damage. He was young when he fought Vegeta and went to Namek to face Frieza, but he showed that just because he was small and young that didn't mean he should be underestimated.

Smoke drifted off of Vegeta's burned body with some lightning crackling off of his injuries where he got hit. As soon as Piccolo cleared him of two of the ki balls, it gave him the few seconds he needed to recover and he immediately dodged the other ki balls.

"Damn, there's no end to them." Piccolo growled as he jumped over a ki ball and then flipped back through the air to avoid another. He sent a ki blast down at the ground to destroy all the ki balls around him.

"I am done with this!" Vegeta screamed as he spread his arms wide and charged up ki his hands. He brought his hands forward in front of his chest and connected them together at his wrists with his two large golden ki blasts merging together. "FINAL FLASH!"

"Shit," Piccolo muttered as he powered up and blasted away from the area before the attack could hit him. Was Vegeta trying to kill him?

The attack ripped through the pillars in its air and down toward Ryazan, who stared back confidentially.

***DBZ***

"WAH!" Yajirobe screamed as he fell over and held onto the ground as the tower started to tremble. "What's going on?!"

Krillin steadied himself in the trembling tower before he looked up at the ceiling to see it visibly shaking and pieces of rubble falling from it. "This has Vegeta's name all over it!" He scowled. He looked over at Dende and Gohan and was relieved to see them okay. In fact, it seemed that Dende didn't even notice what was going on with how focused he was on healing Gohan. "Dende, how's it going?"

The guardian shook his head. "His injuries are serious and he's lost a lot of blood and energy, Krillin. I can't believe he got himself impaled with that sword twice."

"Alright, just hurry." Krillin replied before he turned back around to face the railing. He looked up at the sky, hands curling over the railing in frustration. He felt that he was needed up there, but he had to stay down here. Piccolo and Vegeta could hold out until Gohan was able to fight again. He had to believe that. And he had to trust them.

***DBZ***

"Are you trying to kill me?" Piccolo snapped annoyed as he stood atop some of the destroyed rubble from the temple. They were finally out of the chamber and back on top of the Lookout, or what was left of it. It was pretty much in pieces scattered over the sky now. His eyes drifted over the pieces of the Lookout. This was going to be such a pain to rebuild. He was going to have to start to force the Z fighters to rebuild it so they understood just how miserable it was.

"Tch, if you don't want to die, stay out of my way, Namek." Vegeta retorted, but didn't bother to look at Piccolo. His eyes were moving from one destroyed section of the Lookout to the next. There was not one second where he believed that attack would take out Ryazan.

Scoffing, Piccolo started to sense for where Ryazan was hiding. Because of Vegeta, they lost track of him, which was something Piccolo didn't want to happen. Ryazan already expressed interest in watching Gohan die by his hands. It was because of that Piccolo didn't want Ryazan to just vanish like this. What if he had used that distraction from Vegeta's attack to go finish Gohan off?

With that thought in mind, Piccolo let his senses spread out wider so he could check on Gohan. It was a great relief to him to find that Gohan was there and slowly, but surely, his ki signal was getting stronger.

Focusing all of his attention on the Lookout again, Piccolo continued to sense for where Ryazan was hiding.

But it seemed Vegeta managed to locate him first because he suddenly fired a powerful ki blast right towards Ryazan just as he flew out of the rubble. As the giant energy blast came hurtling towards him, Ryazan pulled his hand out from behind his back to show his sword. And with a diagonal slash straight through the ki ball, it was sliced in half and his sword started to glow with a golden light again as the energy swarmed towards the sword to be absorbed.

"Oh, well, isn't this just fantastic? He got his damn sword back!" Vegeta growled as he shot a glare at Piccolo. "You should have destroyed it." He jumped backwards and landed on another pieced of the destroyed Lookout.

"Oh, yes, great idea. Blast the sword that drains energy. I'm sure that would have worked out well." Piccolo retorted. His eyes shifted from Vegeta to Ryazan. "How well did that just work for you, Vegeta?"

Shooting Piccolo a nasty glare, Vegeta contemplated the idea of attacking him next, but quickly threw that idea away. He did not need help with handling Ryazan, but it would be nice to have someone around to take the blows for him and keep Ryazan busy while he worked on killing him.

Piccolo ignored the fact that Vegeta's anger was radiating off him and that it was directed to him to instead focus on Ryazan, who he had just noticed didn't have a scratch on him. Vegeta put all his power behind his Final Flash attack and it didn't affect him at all! How were they supposed to defeat someone with the kind of power that Ryazan had?

"That was not very nice." Ryazan said in a mocking tone. "I could have been hurt." He swung his sword up to rest it on his shoulder. "Perhaps it is time I taught you two a lesson."

The Zindart warrior swung his sword sharply down from his shoulder before his eyes started to shine with a blue glow and a fiery red aura wrapped around his form. His hand wrapped more tightly around the hilt of his sword as the veins in his hand started to throb and protrude from his skin. These protruding veins traveled all the way up his arm, to his neck, and to his head. With the protruding veins came his bulging muscles as his power coursed through his body as it grew stronger.

"Shit," Was all Vegeta could mumble as he felt the power that Ryazan was now displaying. He was hiding a lot more strength than he originally thought.

***DBZ***

"Oh, man, do you feel that?" Krillin asked horrified as the tower started to shake violently again from the tremendous power above them. He heard Yajirobe shout out in shock behind him, but didn't pay him any attention as he made his way over to Dende unsteadily. Once he got there, he fell to his knees as it was getting too hard to stay standing with all the shaking. "Dende, aren't you finished healing him yet?"

Krillin looked down at Gohan to see him still looking pretty pale. That was expected though. Dende couldn't do anything about his loss of blood. Eyes moving down Gohan's body, he found the two holes in his torso not completely closed yet. It probably didn't help that Gohan seared one of the holes shut to stop the blood loss. That crazy patch job was probably making the healing process longer.

"Krillin, you can't rush this!" Dende snapped, eyes strained as he focused on his friend.

"I know." Krillin replied as calmly as he could, which was not very calm. Just sensing the power of Ryazan above them was enough to tell him that Piccolo and Vegeta were not going to be able to last even a few minutes at this level. They needed Gohan back on his feet NOW!

***DBZ***

"Oh no, oh no, oh no." King Kai said as they watched Vegeta and Piccolo be pummeled with ease. "They won't be able to last like this! Ryazan is too strong now!"

Goku winced as he watched Piccolo get slammed into a piece of the Lookout and wasn't able to recover in time before Ryazan swung his arm around and sent a powerful ki blast at him that hit him square in the chest.

"Can anyone beat Ryazan at this level?" Keyon asked as he glanced over at Goku.

"At this point, the only one with the slightest chance of winning is Gohan. He could have probably won easily from the start if Ryazan didn't have immortality. But now that Ryazan has stolen most of his energy, even Gohan's chances of winning have become mighty slim." King Kai replied worriedly.

"I hope your son has a trick up his sleeve, Goku. Otherwise, the universe is going to be lost." Grand Kai said darkly as he turned back to the watch the fight more seriously than he had earlier.

The saiyan nodded his head. A trick? He wasn't sure if Gohan had something that could ensure his win, but having him return healed and ready for another round would be great by this point. His help was very much needed now.

***DBZ***

Without a warning, a hand flew up and caught Dende's to pull it away from Gohan's chest.

"No."

Krillin and Dende watched in shock as Gohan pushed Dende's other hand away as well.

"Gohan, what are you doing? You're conscious? Stop pushing Dende's hands away. He needs to heal you so you can go back to the fight." Krillin scolded as he grabbed Gohan's hand and pulled it down so Dende could get back to healing.

"No." Gohan moaned. He ripped his wrist away from Krillin and sat up. The action pulled at his chest and he felt a great burning sensation at his injuries that weren't fully healed yet, but he ignored it. "Piccolo and Vegeta….they need help." The half-saiyan pushed himself to his knees, only to fall onto his hands at the pain that flared through his torso from the action.

"You can't be serious." Krillin snapped as he moved down to Gohan's bowed head. "With the condition you're in, the only thing going up there will result in is you dying with them."

Suggesting that his friends would die seemed to be the wrong thing to say as Gohan's ki flared up and he turned his head to look at Krillin with angry teal eyes. He shoved Krillin away from him, which made him feel bad and he would have to apologize for that later, but getting to the Lookout was more important right now.

Gohan shakily rose to his feet. As soon as he was standing though, he felt incredibly lightheaded and like he was going to pass right back out. He has been in enough fights to know that what he was feeling was from losing too much blood and he would just have to fight through it. Passing out right now was not an option. He looked down at his torso to see the holes in his torso now had a thin, tender layer of skin over them. The areas looked weak and as if they were ready to tear apart at the slightest jerk, but that healing would have to do. It was good enough for now.

From what he felt of his energy, he knew he wasn't back at full strength yet, but that couldn't be helped. He had lost too much and it would take too long to have it all restored. So understanding that, Gohan turned on his heel and briefly looked down at the kneeling Krillin. "Be prepared to play a game of catch."

"What?" Krillin asked confused as he looked up at his young friend, but Gohan didn't reply as he started to walk towards the edge of the tower.

Korin caught his eye as he walked away and the cat could only sigh. This was an extremely reckless act, but it was one that reminded Korin so much of Gohan's father. He would gladly charge into battle while not completely healed yet if it met saving his friends from the hands of death.

"Gohan, no! Lie back down! I haven't finished healing you yet!" Dende said frantically as Gohan approached the railing.

His frantic tone is what got Gohan to stop, and while Dende thought Gohan was seeing sense and listening to him, it wasn't for that. The half-saiyan stopped only to say, "It's alright, Dende." Once he finished speaking, Gohan continued his walk.

"What can you do?!" Dende shouted at his back as he flew to his feet. "Gohan, you can't ascend! Your body can't handle the strain with those injuries! Krillin is right. Going up there now will only lead to your death!"

At the edge of the platform, Gohan stopped and turned halfway around to give a smile. It was a smile that was so like the one that Goku gave Krillin and the others before he instant transmissioned Cell away from Earth two years ago. A smile that Krillin would never be able to forget.

A smile of sacrifice.

Krillin knew that smile too well. It was a smile that said he knew what to do and would do what it was that needed to be done, and no one would be able to stop him.

And in the next moment, Gohan instantly transformed into super saiyan and blasted off of the tower.

"Gohan, don't!" Dende screamed as he ran over to the railing to run after his friend.

But before he could reach the railing, Krillin appeared in front of him and wrapped his arms around him to force him to stop. "Stop, Dende." The warrior ordered, but as he did, he hid his distressed expression over the guardian's shoulder. There was nothing any of them could do to stop Gohan now.

He had made his choice.

**A/N: Please Review! **


	6. Ch6: Gohan Returns

**Disclaimer: I don't own Dragon Ball Z**

**Earth's Protector**

**Chapter 6: Gohan Returns **

"We're warriors."

Dende who had fallen to his knees in shock looked up when Krillin spoke. The warrior was facing away from him though so he couldn't see what his expression was saying.

"We are trained to not fear death. We go into battle knowing that we might not make it out of this one alive."

"That doesn't mean to make a sacrifice." Dende whispered. "No one can be prepared for that."

Krillin turned around to give him a weak smile. "Gohan never said he was going to sacrifice himself, Dende. He is taking a huge risk by leaving without being completely healed, but that doesn't mean he plans to die. Trust him. He knows what he is doing."

Facing the sky once more, Krillin's weak smile turned grim. Despite what he said to reassure Dende, Krillin was just as worried and scared for Gohan. He trusted him to do what he could to save the Earth, but that didn't mean he wasn't worried. Gohan was so much like his dad that he was afraid that he _would_ sacrifice himself for the planet just like Goku did with Cell two years ago.

'_Please don't die, little buddy.'_

***DBZ***

**Ryazan disappeared from in front of Vegeta and reappeared behind him as he swung his fist from behind right into the side of the prince's face. The impact was so hard and fast that it propelled him out of the air and straight into a hunk of the Lookout and right through it. He continued down until he hit another piece where he laid, dropping his transformation in the process. **

"**Damn," Piccolo snarled as he looked down at Vegeta. He wiped a bit of blood off of his cheek before looking back at the darkly amused Ryazan. **

"**He's still alive." Ryazan said as he looked at Vegeta. "I must give you this. You are all very persistent about living on this planet. But," He raised his hand in front of him so his palm was facing upwards. A blue ki ball rose from his hand. "Your struggle is futile." **

**His hand rose above his head before he twisted his wrist and sent the ki ball flying. **

**To Piccolo's surprise, the ki ball that he thought Ryazan was throwing at Vegeta to end his life headed for the prince, but it never hit as it suddenly changed directions and came propelling at him. Piccolo jumped off the rubble he was standing on to dodge, but the ki ball continued to follow him. "Tch, homing ki ball." Piccolo said annoyed as he powered up and flew to the left to avoid the attack. **

"They won't last much longer at this rate!" Goku shouted worriedly.

"At this rate, they will die before your son is healed." Grand Kai replied with a frown. "And even if your son does get there in time to save them, I'm not sure how much good it will do. Ryazan might be too much for any of them to handle now."

Dark eyes turned to look at Grand Kai. A fire filled with determination shone in those dark eyes. "You're wrong. Gohan was beaten down, but it is moments like this when his friends are in danger that he really excels."

A snort of laughter was heard and everyone turned to look at King Kai. "You're understating that too much, Goku." King Kai said amused. "He is your son so him excelling is not surprising. I remember watching his battles on Namek with Frieza and the Ginyu Force. He showed amazing power even back then when his friends were in danger. It was too bad he couldn't control it back then."

**Piccolo turned his back towards the ground and fired two ki blasts at the ki ball that was coming towards him. The ki blasts and the ki ball slammed into each other, resulting in an explosion and smoke wafting around. **

**With that done, Piccolo turned back around to find Ryazan and to his horror saw him getting ready to impale Vegeta with his sword. Not having enough time for a special attack, Piccolo just stretched his hand out and fired multiple ki blasts towards Ryazan. **

**Sensing they were coming, Ryazan jumped away and landed on another piece of the Lookout, which caused the ki blasts to hit Vegeta instead. **

"Vegeta won't be happy about that." Goku winced.

"It's better than having his energy stolen to make Ryazan stronger." Pikkon replied.

Goku shook his head. "He'll still be furious." He sighed. "But with Gohan and his power, I think that it was a good thing he couldn't control it when he was on Namek. It left him in bad situations because he couldn't handle the fights without it, but those fights trained him and gave him experience in dealing with powerful opponents." Goku said as he looked back at the crystal ball with a frown as he watched Ryazan slam into Piccolo with his shoulder. "He was born with this amazing dormant power that told me he would be powerful one day, but no child should be able to harness that power at five. A part of me was worried that it would be too great, too powerful his body to handle. Piccolo managed to train him enough that he remembered when he used that power, but I know that just using it for a few seconds left Gohan drained. Being able to harness and use it at will might have destroyed his body at five."

The saiyan's frown deepened when he saw Piccolo get slammed into a destroyed pillar with Ryazan racing at him with his sword ready to steal the Namek's energy.

"Is that why you didn't train him to access it and gain control until he was ten?" King Kai asked curiously.

"A part of the reason." Goku replied, but decided not to mention that the other part of the reason was that he didn't want to push his son so hard. He knew that to help Gohan get control of his power, he would have to be really hard on him in training and he just didn't want to do that. He was scared of hurting his son so he held back all the time until Gohan yelled at him to train him seriously. Being pushed beyond his limits is what Gohan needed and as his father, Goku found that hard to do which is why Piccolo was a better teacher for his son. Though after Gohan yelled at him, Goku made sure to become a better, stricter teacher on his son and the results were amazing.

***DBZ***

Piccolo cracked his eyes open to see the word coming down to kill him and he twisted out of the way to avoid it, but he didn't move fast enough and the sword went through his shoulder. A silent pained gasp escaped his lips. His eyes caught sight of the sword emitting a golden glow as his energy was drained from his body. _'It's like dealing with Gero and Cell all over again.' _Piccolo thought annoyed as he lifted his hand to make a move to escape, but Ryazan saw through it and slammed his foot down on the Namekian's hand to keep it pinned to the rubble.

"Now, now, there is no need for that, Warrior Piccolo. We wouldn't want you to interfere with my draining you of all your energy." Ryazan said mockingly, which made Piccolo snarl angrily at him. He yanked on his sword and pulled it down from Piccolo's shoulder to his chest.

Purple blood gushed from the slash and poured down Piccolo's arm, but the Namekian didn't focus on that. In fact, he was finding it hard to focus. With his energy being stolen, he could feel himself getting weaker and weaker, which meant that it took all his energy to stay focused on Ryazan standing above him. He needed to escape from this. He couldn't let his energy continued to be stolen and used to make the enemy stronger.

His eyes drifted past Ryazan to see the floating pieces of the Lookout. The ancient platform that was home to the guardian of Earth was utterly destroyed and just pieces floating in the planet's orbit now.

With how destroyed it was, it didn't matter what he did at this point. So with that thought in mind, with the remaining energy he had left, Piccolo released a ki blast that shot through the rubble he was trapped on, utterly destroying it under him, burning his back.

But it freed him.

As the rubble was destroyed, Piccolo fell down and he felt the sword slide out of his torso. From the explosion of ki, Ryazan was blasted up away from Piccolo, sword still clutched tightly in his hand.

Having used all of his energy to separate himself and Ryazan so that energy could not be stolen, a weak Piccolo floated down through the air, completely defenseless now.

"I'm impressed you had that much fight left." Ryazan said as he looked down at the severely weakened Piccolo. "But it was pointless. You will now die here and I will steal all the life from this planet! I don't need your energy to become stronger!" He directed his hand at Ryazan and fired off a ki blast that would be strong enough to obliterate Piccolo.

Still falling through the air, Piccolo could only look up at the incoming ki blast with a smirk. He could feel him coming. Just like his father, he showed up late, but just in time.

A second ki blast came flying past him to slam into the ki blast heading for Piccolo and with how much power was in it, it utterly destroyed the enemy's attack.

"What?" Ryazan asked annoyed as he looked in the direction it came from. As soon as he saw Gohan, a smirk formed on his lips. "So, finally returning to face your death, Warrior Gohan?"

The half-saiyan ignored Ryazan, choosing to instead fly over to his first mentor. "Piccolo!" Gohan shouted as he caught the nearly unconscious Namekian. "Don't worry. Dende will heal you." He looked over to where Vegeta was lying unconscious in some rubble and bleeding out a lot from a head wound and an angry scowl morphed over his lips. He knew it would be bad when he sensed Ryazan's ki rise drastically, but he didn't think it would be this bad. Is this how it felt for his dad when he arrived on the battlefield to find everyone beaten so badly?

It made him feel absolutely horrible inside. He should have been here sooner. From the start, he should have woken up and pushed Dende away. He knew the healing was needed so he could fight, but he should have just fought through it and gotten back here sooner. Now Vegeta and Piccolo were out of commission until Dende healed them which would take a while. And with himself not being at one hundred percent, this fight wasn't going to be easy.

***DBZ***

"YES!" King Kai shouted, throwing a fist into the air. "Gohan has returned just in the nick of time."

Unlike King Kai, Goku was not happy as he leaned forward to get closer to the crystal ball as he examined his son with a critical eye. His eyes roamed up and down his son's body from what he could see that Piccolo's body wasn't hiding with a frown. Dende was the healer here and knowing how loyal he was, there was no way the Namekian would not heal his son completely so why did he still see injuries marring his son's body? And his energy….it didn't feel as strong as it should be at this level. He was just healed so he should feel a lot stronger than before.

"Something's not right. He's not healed." Goku said with a frown. "Why isn't he healed?! Dende always does his job right to make sure you are fully healed."

Pikkon blinked and leaned forward to look at Gohan as well. "You can tell he isn't healed? He looks fine to me."

"What is your definition of fine?" Goku snapped, but realized his harsh tone and breathed out slowly. "Sorry, Pikkon. I didn't mean to snap." His tan hand ran through his spiky locks. His fatherly instincts were screaming at him to go down there and protect his little boy, but he knew he couldn't do that. As a warrior, he understood that Gohan could fight his own battles and he had to let him grow up to win without his father holding his hand. But as a father, he wanted nothing more than to go down and take over the fight from his son. His friends never understood just how much his duties as a warrior and as a father battled within him all the time when his son was on the battlefield. When his son was being beaten down, both the warrior and father in morphed into one and he charged in to save Gohan. But when Gohan was fine, but struggling a bit, his fatherly instinct told him to charge in and save his son, while his warrior side said to leave Gohan be. He couldn't always jump in to save Gohan. He had to let his son struggle and grow on the battlefield to become a great warrior. Because of all of this, he was always at war within himself, trying to decide what the best course of action was. It wasn't just Chi-Chi fighting with concern when their son was on the battlefield.

Pikkon blinked in surprise. "Honestly, Goku, if you weren't concerned for your son, I would call you a horrible father."

***DBZ***

Gohan changed his grip on Piccolo to hold him by the back of his gi and flew over to Vegeta. Normally he would not manhandle his friend so roughly, but he didn't have a lot of time. He was sure Ryazan would not wait for him to get Vegeta and Piccolo to safely. So with that thought, he simply snatched Vegeta up by his wrist, not bothering with gentleness. They were both strong warriors so they could handle a bit of rough treatment.

"Sorry for this," Gohan muttered softly to his friends.

"_**Krillin! Catch now!" **_Gohan screamed through a mental link.

***DBZ***

"_**Krillin! Catch now!" **_The bald warrior jumped in surprise when Gohan yelled at him in his mind before he frowned in confusion as he got over his mini heart attack. Catch what? What was Gohan doing?

Deciding it best not to ponder on any questions he had and to just trust Gohan, Krillin jumped off the tower and floated there, looking up towards the sky. His eyes scanned the blue expanse of sky back and forth trying to see what Gohan wanted him to catch.

A dot appeared in the sky, making him blink as the dot turned into two and got steadily bigger as it came closer to him until he realized those dots were people. His eyes widened in shock as he moved to dodge the unconscious forms of Vegeta and Piccolo.

"HE threw them down here?!" Krillin shouted in shock.

The Namekian guardian ran over to the railing on the platform. His small hands gripped it as he watched Vegeta and Piccolo travel past. "Krillin, catch them!" Dende screamed in horror.

"Oh, right." Krillin said before diving down towards his falling friends. Of all the things that Gohan could have done, he threw them done here and just trusted Krillin to catch them. He could have at least given him more of a warning then just 'catch now!'

His hand wrapped around Vegeta's ankle first, but he didn't stop his dive as he continued down towards Piccolo. He was sure Vegeta would feel some whiplash or something from the way Krillin was whipping him around, but he didn't care. Piccolo's ki was so low right now that if he hit the ground from this fall, he would die. And Gohan would never forgive him if that happened.

Krillin grimaced as his hand brushed against Piccolo's wrist, but he couldn't grab a hold of the Namekian since he was falling so fast. Eyes narrowed, Krillin pulled his hand away from the falling Piccolo and instead sent a blast behind him towards the sky to add a bit of a boost to his freefalling.

The ki blast seemed to do the trick as Krillin was propelled downward fast enough that he caught up to Piccolo and his hand finally brushed a part of Piccolo's gi and snagged the chance as he curled his fingers around it and yanked him up. With both warriors caught, Krillin powered up even more to bring all three of them to a sudden stop from the fall they were just in.

Once he got himself stabilized with the two warriors in hand, Krillin sighed in relief. "Damn kid is going to give me a heart attack." He looked down at Piccolo then over at Vegeta and sweat dropped a bit. Did Gohan really throw them down here with how injured they were? He didn't think Gohan would do something so rough to his friends.

Krillin flew back up to Korin's Tower and landed on it. He gently laid the two beaten up warriors down on the ground. "They're all yours, Dende." He stood up and sighed as he looked up at the blue sky. "As always, Gohan finds a way to stress me out when he is involved in a battle." He looked over to see Dende healing Piccolo. "Feels like Namek all over again."

***DBZ***

**With Vegeta and Piccolo in hand, Gohan flew away from the rubble of the Lookout, eyes locked on Ryazan in case he made a move against him. Then, suddenly without warning, he let go of Vegeta and let him start to fall before he slammed his feet into the prince's chest and sent him flying down towards the ground. Next, Piccolo went as Gohan grabbed his arm with both hands and with all his strength sent him flying after Vegeta's body. **

"WHAT IS HE DOING?!" King Kai shouted as he grabbed his head. "Those are his friends he is sending to their deaths by hard ground!"

Goku stared in shock before remembering that this was his son they were watching and shook his head. "This is Gohan, King Kai. He would never do this unless he has a plan. Gohan honors his friends' lives above his own. It's why he has come back to the battlefield despite still being injured."

"**Well, now this is shocking, Warrior Gohan." Ryazan said as he stared at Vegeta's and Piccolo's bodies being rapidly thrown away to the ground. "And here I thought you returned to save them, not send them to their deaths." **

**Gohan looked back up at Ryazan with narrowed eyes. "Enough talk, Ryazan." He snarled in a harsh tone. "I'm here to fight, not chat like we're old buddies." **

"**Good point," Ryazan said with a smirk. "It seems you got healed by your little Namekian friend once more. Well, it's no matter. It's just more energy for me!"**

**With those words, Ryazan suddenly disappeared.**

"Oh no, your son better not let him steal any more energy!" South Kai said with a frown. "Anymore and he'll become impossible to defeat."

"Gohan no longer has to stall for a wish to be made so he will hopefully go all out from the start this time." Goku replied.

***DBZ***

Gohan's eyes widened as he lost sight of Ryazan. He was moving so fast now. How did Piccolo and Vegeta last so long against him? His eyes moved around, looking in every direction for the Zindart.

Ryazan suddenly appeared right in front of him, bringing his sword down to strike him. He was moving so fast that Gohan felt he wouldn't be able to move fast enough to dodge, but that didn't mean he wouldn't try. The half-saiyan powered up and jumped to the right, but Ryazan just twisted his wrist around and brought his blade slicing sideways towards him.

Ready to subdue himself to the pain, Gohan was surprised when a ki blast suddenly flew up between them and hit Ryazan's wrist. It was so unexpected that Ryazan wasn't prepared for the pain and released his sword. The force from the ki blast sent the sword flying upwards, both warriors watching the flying sword.

***DBZ***

Goku's mouth dropped open in shock. "Where did that come from?!" Not that he was complaining as it saved his son, but still, it just came out of nowhere!

"So, uh, is it normal on Earth for a ki blast to just appear randomly like this?" Sarta asked blankly.

"…Not in my experience." Goku replied, blinking. With Vegeta and Piccolo out of commission, the only person around who could have sent that would be Krillin, but he was nowhere around the fight at this moment. Did maybe Yamcha or Tien show up? No, it couldn't be. He didn't sense them anywhere near his son.

***DBZ***

Gohan did not have a clue as to where that ki blast came from, but he wasn't going to question it as it just saved his life. His eyes moved to the sword still flying higher and higher above him then to Ryazan. Ryazan looked at him then back up at his sword, and like that, both warriors moved at the same time.

They disappeared and reappeared higher in the air, racing for the sword.

Gohan dodged a ki blast Ryazan sent at him by powering up even move and moving faster towards the sword. He glanced down and saw Ryazan had also powered up and was close enough for Gohan to kick him in the face, so that is what Gohan did. He slammed his foot right into Ryazan's nose and used his face as a springboard to propel himself even faster upwards. His ears caught the satisfying sound of Ryazan gasping in pain.

"I," Gohan said as he stretched his hand forward. "Hate." It was a bad time to reach forward as the flipping sword brought his hand around the blade and not the handle like he wanted. He felt the blade slice through his hand and start to drain his power which made him scowl. "This." Gohan yanked the sword down out of the air and spun it in his hand to grip it by the handle. This required absolutely no ki at all if he wanted it destroyed and not absorbing his ki again. So he let his ki drop down so he was now free falling through the air and passed a surprised Ryazan. "SWORD!" As he screamed he grabbed the blade with his hand and brought his knee up. He slammed the blade down onto his knee with all the strength he could muster and was met with a very satisfying CRACK! He watched in joy as the broken piece of the blade flew up into the air passed him. Gohan dropped the handle of the sword and slammed into a piece of the destroyed Lookout.

The sword handle clattered to the rubble besides him.

"Great power to drain me of my energy, yet the metal was so weak." Gohan scoffed as he knocked his foot against the broken sword. "I guess it's only hard to break if you don't realize you have to drop your ki down and use pure martial arts to destroy it." He looked up at the furious Ryazan. It was kind of amusing to see his face turn purple from angry. "Or it is just plain hard to destroy cause it's hard to get out of your hands, Ryazan."

***DBZ***

Goku whistled. "Nice, son. Now just destroy Ryazan and you'll have won the day!"

"**You wretched child!" Ryazan screamed. **

Goku blinked before a laugh escaped him, making his friends look at him like he was crazy. "Cell screamed the exact same thing at Gohan when he was destroying him in their fight. I guess people just don't like being beaten by a kid."

"Most people would find that embarrassing." Tyron agreed as he stared at the half-saiyan on the crystal ball. He seemed to be smirking in amusement and he was sure that was doing nothing to keep Ryazan level headed right now.

"**You and this planet are history! No, you don't even get that much." Ryazan screamed, glaring down at Gohan. **

"People tend to underestimate kids too much because of their age, and any smart child would use that to their advantage." Pikkon said with a smirk. "I don't know if Gohan has ever done that…."

"**I will wipe this planet from history so no one will even remember the name Earth!" **

"I am usually not on the battlefield when he is fighting, but I don't think he ever has." Goku replied with a shrug.

"**Do you hear me, Warrior Gohan?! It is over!"**

"But from his fights I have seen and from what Krillin and the others tell me, when Gohan was younger, while he is very intelligent and picks up fighting quickly, he was a bit reckless and charged into fights. Though he usually did it to save someone." He shook his head, an amused smile resting on his face. "I can't count the times Krillin has complained to me about Gohan's reckless actions and how he thought they were going to get killed one hundred times over because of it, but he said he wouldn't change one thing about his adventures with Gohan."

"Sounds like a good kid to have on your side." Olibu replied with a smile. He looked at the crystal ball to see Ryazan suddenly appear behind Gohan and slam his foot right into his spine. "Looks like Ryazan is done screaming at him and is ready to kill."

***DBZ***

Intense pain shot up Gohan's back causing him to fall forward and onto his knees. His hands hit the ground to keep himself from falling flat on his face as the pain from the kick agitated all of his half healed injuries. Fire flared through them all, especially the two injuries in his stomach where he was impaled.

"What a great sight. The prideful saiyan child bowing on his knees for me." Ryazan mocked before he slammed his foot into Gohan's back again, but this time it was right in one of his partially healed holes from the sword impalement earlier. Teal eyes widened in extreme pain, but that was only the start. Ryazan didn't move his foot this time and began to slowly press down with more force onto his back.

A sharp gasp of pain escape Gohan as he felt Ryazan's boot pressing down harder on his back. Just from the force alone, the half-saiyan could feel the weak tissue around his partially healed wounds started to tear open again. Gritting his teeth to keep from any pained sounds escaping again, he mustered up his strength to keep himself from being pushed down, but his arms were trembling violently from the effort. But it didn't do much good as Gohan felt his knees dig into the Lookout rubble as it was crushed beneath him. Ryazan was displaying too much strength for him to continue to fight back like this.

"Crushed beneath my foot." Ryazan laughed as he lifted his foot and slammed it down again, but this time it was on Gohan's head. He started to press down with more power than before. "Exactly where a monkey belongs!"

Gohan felt his head being pushed down and a growl of frustration escaped him. "You…" The half-saiyan snarled, surprising Ryazan and causing him to stop laughing.

"Do you have something to say?" Ryazan asked.

"You remind me of Frieza." Gohan growled. "Acting all superior, like you better than any other race."

Ryazan's eyes flashed dangerously and with all the power he had, he slammed his foot into Gohan's spine again and sent the half-saiyan crashing down. "Don't," The Zindart snarled as he slammed his boot into Gohan's side, making the half-saiyan wheeze in pain as the metal on them connecting with his ribs. He slammed his foot onto Gohan's head and slowly added pressure to crush it. "You dare compare me to Frieza."

Flashes of Namek hit Gohan's mind as he was reminded of Frieza almost killing him by crushing his head like this. His hands dragged across the rumble in frustration, nails scraping against anything that they came in contact with. He wasn't seeing his fight with Ryazan anymore. Now, more than ever, he felt like the helpless child he was on Namek when Frieza was crushing his head and all he could do was wait for death. Back then, Krillin was down, his dad wasn't going to be healed in time to save him, Piccolo was too far away to help, and Vegeta was too scared to move. He was suffering all alone again.

***DBZ***

"No," Goku whispered, staring at his son as he was being tortured by a furious Ryazan. Why did Gohan have to say that and make Ryazan even angrier? He was going to die! Why? He had the power to ascend, so why wasn't he?

"Mmm," King Kai hummed darkly. "Goku, do you know what happened in Gohan's fight with Frieza on Namek while you were healing?"

"What does that have to do with now?" Goku growled as he glared at Ryazan.

"Goku."

At King Kai's tone, Goku forced his eyes away from the crystal ball to look at King Kai. "No, I was able to sense the battle and I knew my friends were struggling with Frieza, but I do not know what happened in the fight. I know Gohan almost died a few times and so did Krillin, Piccolo, and Vegeta."

A frown formed over King Kai's face. "I know you want to believe your son is strong, Goku, but you have to remember he is still just a child and he faced horrors like you never have at such a young age."

"What are you saying?" Goku asked confused, brows furrowed in frustration as his eyes drifted from his son back to King Kai then back to his son.

"You know Frieza tortured him in their battles, but what you don't realize is that at one point, Frieza was slowly killing him by crushing his head, much like Ryazan is doing now. Your son is strong, but mentally right now, he is probably flashing back to that fight with Frieza and feels like the defenseless five year old boy he was when Frieza was doing this to him." King Kai explained gravely.

Horror that Goku hasn't felt since he watched Cell give Gohan a bear hug that almost crushed all his bones spread through him like fire. He whipped back around to stare at his son who was struggling to not scream out in pain as Ryazan added more pressure to Gohan's head. He could practically hear his son's head started to cave in. Frieza did the same thing to him? Gohan never told him….he never told him about all the pain inflicted on him in his battles and Goku never once thought of how traumatizing it might be for his little boy to face all these dangers. He always acted so strong and mature for his age…

"Frieza did that to a five year old boy?" Olibu muttered darkly. "Why does it seem no one has morals about hurting a child?"

Goku barely heard Olibu as he stared at his suffering son. His little boy was going to be killed and all because he was lost in the horror of his memories. He had to help him. Gohan needed help to escape from his painful memories. His hand twitched a bit as he thought about instant transmissioning down to Earth to save Gohan again, but before he could make that final decision, Grand Kai was suddenly standing in front of him, blocking his view of Gohan.

"I know you want to go down there to save him, Goku, but you can't interfere with the living anymore." Grand Kai said gravely.

Goku's black eyes turned to teal, anger flashing in them as someone dared to stand in his path to his son.

"But," Grand Kai continued, ignoring the anger radiating off of Goku. "Ryazan needs stopped and your son might be the only one to do it so I will give you the chance to help free him from his memories."

"I can do that?" Goku asked shocked.

"Normally North Kai would help you speak to him, but he might be too far lost in his memories to hear it so instead, put your hand on the crystal ball and think of your son and concentrate your ki on engulfing him. You need to appear in his mind to help him battle his way out of this." Grand Kai explained before he stepped away from the crystal ball.

Eyes shifting from anger to determination, Goku nodded and stood up to approach the crystal ball. He gently laid his hand on it and closed his eyes as he thought of his son. _'Gohan, I'm coming, my son."_

**A/N: Please Review! **


	7. Ch7: Round 3: SSJ2 Gohan vs Ryazan

**Disclaimer: I don't own Dragon Ball Z**

**Earth's Protector**

**Chapter 7: Round 3: SSJ2 Gohan vs Ryazan **

_Alone. _

_A scream tore from Gohan's throat as he felt that foot of a space tyrant adding more pressure to his skull. It hurt so much that he couldn't even hear his skull cracking in a hundred different place or even hear his own scream. Pain flooded his senses, and even though he knew his eyes were open, he saw nothing but a white blinding void. _

_There was no one around. Frieza was going to kill him. _

_Krillin was down for the count. Dende may have pulled him out of the water, but there was nothing that could be done to get him back on his feet. _

_Vegeta was paralyzed with fear and was not going to move to save him. _

_Piccolo was too far away and wouldn't get here in time. _

_And his dad…his dad was on Frieza's ship being healed. _

_No one was coming to save him this time. _

_And he had no power to save himself. _

_He was truly going to die this time. But he wasn't scared of death. Death would actually be wonderful right now. It would take this crushing pain away. _

_And all because he was weak._

_Why couldn't he be stronger to take Frieza down? Why couldn't he have been stronger to save Krillin from getting impaled? He was going to die without being able to save anyone. _

_He wanted to cry, but found he couldn't. _

_His hands scraped at the ground, dragging dirt with them. Why was the pain not ending? Why was Frieza dragging his death out? When would death claim him as its own? _

_More pressure slammed into Gohan's senses, causing another loud, pain filled scream to tear from Gohan's throat. _

"_Daddy….Piccolo…."_

"_**Gohan." **_

_Sudden warmth spread over Gohan. Warmth that took away all the agonizing pain, but the half-saiyan still wasn't able to move from where he laid broken on the ground. _

"_**My son, I'm sorry I wasn't here to save you."**_

'_My son?' Gohan thought before his eyes snapped open in shock. His eyes moved up to see his father kneeling by him. "D-Daddy?" What was his dad doing here? He was supposed to be in Frieza's ship getting healed! _

"_**Gohan, don't let your past fears scare you." **__Goku said softly as he reached forward and gently brushed his son's hair out of his face. _

"_Past?" Gohan repeated confused before his vision went dark as his dad covered his eyes. _

"_**You need to remember, son. The past doesn't control you. It's a stepping stone to help you reach your true potential." **__Goku continued as he poured his ki into his son. __**"Frieza scared you, but you bravely stood up and pushed those fears aside to protect Krillin, Piccolo, Vegeta, and Dende."**_

_To Gohan's surprise, he felt power drifting into him. He felt himself growing stronger. What was going on? "…I can't, Dad. I can't be brave anymore." _

"_**Yes, you can!" **__Goku shouted before his voice softened. __**"Gohan, you're one of the bravest, strongest people I know. Despite the odds being against you, you always stood up to face an enemy out of your league. You stood your ground and you grew with each battle. I know you're scared, son, but you have to face those fears and conquer them. Don't let them control you! Remember, living a life of fear is not living at all!" **_

_Goku noticed his son's hand twitch and smiled a bit. His son was not one to stay down for long. _

"_I…I...I…me strong?" Gohan whispered. _

"_**Yes, you, Gohan. You're so strong. Stronger than I am and this amazing strength of yours comes from your love and desire to protect your friends. If you can't conquer your fears for yourself, then do it for them, Gohan. They need you." **_

"_Daddy," Gohan whispered._

"_**Show Ryazan the true power of a super saiyan!"**_

"_Ryazan?" Gohan repeated, brows furrowed in confusion. Wasn't he on Namek facing Frieza who was crushing his head? _

"_**Remember Ryazan! Remember how he almost killed Dende, Piccolo, and Vegeta! If you don't get up and defeat him now, he'll kill them, Krillin, all your friends, and your mother! He'll destroy the Earth! Release your power and conquer all the fears you have! And when you do, you'll set yourself free from your restraints. You can save them all!" **_

_Gohan's hand curled around the dirt on the ground once again, shoulders and back trembling as he concentrated. Concentrated on all that power residing in him. Concentrated on the power his father just transferred to him. This was not the time to be lying around. _

_Wasn't he doing something important?_

_Wasn't he fighting someone? Someone who dared to threaten his home? _

_Gohan's hand curled into a fist and slammed down on the ground. _

_**Ryazan! **_

_He was the son of Goku Son and he was the protector of the Earth now! He had a job to do! _

_Gohan's eyes snapped open, flashing teal as he screamed, releasing all the power residing deep within him. _

***DBZ***

Goku's eyes snapped open as he felt himself forced out of his son's mind by his sheer power alone. He stared into the crystal ball to see his son blasting Ryazan off of him as his power exploded from him. With Ryazan gone, Gohan pushed himself up, stumbling a bit on his feet before he was stable. A scream tore from Gohan's lips as his ki rose off the charts. His muscles mass increased a bit, but not as much as the powerful aura that exploded all around him. His spiky blond hair grew even longer and stood up more rigid than ever. Joining with Gohan's golden aura was an electrical aura as lightning sparked all around his body.

A smile passed over Goku's face. "That's my boy."

King Kai shot a glare at Goku. "You gave him your energy."

Goku chuckled nervously as he scratched the back of his head. "You realized that?"

"DO YOU TAKE ME FOR AN IDIOT?!" King Kai screamed at Goku. "What were you thinking? That's interfering too much, Goku!"

"Aw, come on, King Kai. He wasn't fully healed so he didn't recover all his energy. I just gave a bit to give him the boost he needed." Goku said with a grin as he looked back at his son proudly.

West Kai gritted his teeth and looked from King Kai to Goku then to Gohan with his pulsating aura. No one alive had a better chance of finally ridding the universe of Ryazan except for this thirteen year old saiyan. "Fight on, kid! Destroy Ryazan!"

King Kai whipped his head around to stare at West Kai in shock and surprise, but that was all since before he could say a thing, the other warriors followed West Kai's lead and began to cheer for Gohan to finally beat Ryazan down.

***DBZ***

Ryazan forced himself to stop in the air so he wasn't sent completely flying away. His eyes narrowed in on Gohan as the powerful ki hit his senses. "So, it was you." The Zindart said as he lowered himself from the sky to reach Gohan. "You're finally showing your true power."

Sharp, focused teal eyes looked over at Ryazan. "What are you talking about?"

"I don't like to waste time searching or waiting for warriors to show up so I program my ship to locate the strongest fighters on the planet and land near them. When you showed up, I had at first thought my ship messed up, but you were far stronger than I an anticipated for a child. And now I see," Ryazan floated closer to Gohan and looked down at him. "You were holding back on me the entire time."

Gohan stared in confusion, but still completely determinedly focused. "I thought you stole life from the planet first before going after the warriors."

Ryazan was shocked for a moment before he smirked. "Really, you are such an informed brat." He reached forward towards Gohan, surprising the half-saiyan, but he refused to move back in fear. He would not give Ryazan that satisfaction of seeing him flinch, but he was still alert for an attack from him. "But this power you have. I sensed it so long ago. It was so amazing and I want it." He stopped his hand in front of Gohan's face. "But I knew I wasn't strong enough to steal it two years ago so I traveled to more planets, stole more power, and slowly made my way here. When I arrived, I would be strong enough to face the owner of that power and take it all for myself."

"You sought after power to kill Frieza." Gohan growled before he vanished from Ryazan's sight.

Ryazan's eyes widened in horror as he looked around for the kid. He wasn't this fast before.

"But to get that power, you stole life from planets, which makes you no better than the tyrant you despise."

Ryazan froze in fear as he heard that voice behind him. His eyes moved to the side to see Gohan floating there, a cold expression on his face. With fear coursing through his veins, Ryazan spun around to punch Gohan, but the half-saiyan was already gone by the time he had turned around.

"In fact, you are weak and pathetic."

The Zindart warrior spun all around in the air, trying to find where Gohan's voice was coming from this time, but it was impossible to locate it. He heard it all around him. What was going on? This shouldn't be happening! That kid didn't have all this strength before. He was drained of his energy. Ryazan took it for himself. Even if he did recover, they should still be on equal ground right now!

"The only way for you to gain strength is to steal it, and even then, that power was never enough for you to defeat the one who destroyed your life." Gohan suddenly appeared right in front of Ryazan, no trace of a smirk on his face like in his fight with Cell. Instead, he was frowning in concentration with his eyes narrowed in on his enemy.

"Y-you!" Ryazan screamed right in Gohan's face, but the teen stared unflinching back at him. His whole body started to tremble from rage. "How dare you?! I am stronger than Frieza could ever hope to be!"

Gohan stared coldly into Ryazan's eyes. "And yet, you didn't defeat him. My father did." A smirk curled over his lips. "Funny how things work out sometimes." He slowly lifted his hand and held his palm right in Ryazan's face. His sharp eyesight caught sight of the slightest flinch from Ryazan. "You're no warrior. You never fought Frieza and instead traveled to different planets to steal life to get stronger because you are scared."

"A coward." Gohan scoffed as he charged up ki in his hand. "You claim to have wanted revenge against Frieza, but that was a lie. You stole life to get stronger to keep yourself alive, not to kill Frieza. You're too scared of death to even think of challenging the tyrant. A real warrior isn't scared to die and jumps into every battle knowing death is a high possibility. You only jump into fights you know you can win which is why you never fought Frieza. Your fear of him kept you running through space."

"Fear?" Ryazan repeated angrily. "I fear no one, Warrior Gohan!"

More ki filled the blast in Gohan's hand causing it to grow bigger. At this point, it was so full of power that Ryazan could feel the heat from it smashing into his face, causing him to sweat, whether that was from heat or just plain fear he didn't know. It couldn't be fear though. He was scared of no one, least of all a child!

"You seem to not understand fear." Gohan replied. "Fear is a part of life. Everyone feels it at some point, but it is conquering fear that allows you to grow stronger and live your life. There is nothing wrong with feeling it."

"Shut up." Ryazan whispered before he was screaming as he powered up. A dark blue aura wrapped around his body as his muscles bulged. "SHUT UP, YOU STUPID CHILD!"

Gohan stared calmly at Ryazan as wind whipped around him, slashing at his face, but Gohan's hardened skin was not all that bothered by the harsh wind. He lowered his ki filled hand to his side. "So easily angered. I must be right then."

***DBZ***

"Why is he saying that? Is he trying to make Ryazan even angrier?!" Pikkon asked shocked.

Goku chuckled a bit as he scratched the back of his head. "Gohan can get a bit hotheaded and cocky when in this form. But don't worry," He lowered his hand looked back at his son. "He actually seems to have that under control this time. He's not as bad as he was the first time he entered this level."

"This isn't bad? What do you consider bad?" Arqua asked in disbelief.

"Um," Goku thought for a moment. "When he tortures his opponent and fills them with so much fear that they try to self-destruct and take the whole planet with him just to kill Gohan."

Pikkon looked over at Goku with a frown. "Transforming affects your mentality so much that your personality changes? It sounds dangerous."

"At first it is because so much rage is coursing through you, but once you've mastered it, you can better control those emotions." Goku replied. "I don't know about Vegeta or Trunks, but when I first transformed, I almost lost myself the same way Gohan did when he first entered the second level. It is really hard to stay true to yourself with those types of negative emotions coursing through our veins."

***DBZ***

"DIE, YOU MISERABLE BRAT!" Ryazan screamed as he threw a ki blast at Gohan. As it hit him, he flew straight at Gohan to slam his knee into his face, but Gohan just lifted a hand and blocked the knee an inch from his face. Ryazan stayed frozen in spot, knee caught by Gohan as he stared at the kid. That ki blast hit him dead on, but he wasn't affected at all by it.

Unlike Ryazan, Gohan wasn't frozen and he proved it by throwing Ryazan's leg aside and driving his fist into his stomach. As soon as he did that, he pulled back and disappeared to behind Ryazan and just floated there with his back to him. Out of the corner of his eyes, he saw Ryazan lurch forward in pain, grabbing his stomach as he drifted down a bit, not able to properly focus his ki from the immense pain he was just delivered.

"H-how?" Ryazan said horrified, blood and saliva mixing together as it flew out of his mouth. "Y-you weren't this strong….b-before."

Gohan stared coldly over his shoulder at the Zindart warrior. "You call saiyans violent barbarians as if you know them, and yet you do not know one of the fundamental principles of saiyans. And that is, the more you beat them down, the closer they are to death, the stronger they return once healed!"

With that said, the half-saiyan vanished and reappeared above, floating sideways. Slowly, Ryazan raised his eyes to look at Gohan just as he brought his elbow down right into his face, hearing a loud crack as he broke his nose. The force of the impact sent Ryazan downwards into the debris of the Lookout.

He hit it hard and stayed paralyzed there for a moment in pain before he was able to push himself up to his hands and knees. "Damn it." Ryazan growled, slamming a fist into the debris. "This is not happening." He tilted his head back to stare up at Gohan, only to find him gone. "What?!"

"You're losing your cool."

Ryazan whipped his head back down to see Gohan standing in front of him on the rubble.

"In a fight, if you don't keep your cool, you'll lose. Fighting is not just about brute strength, but about your mentality as well. If you let an enemy get to you, winning is not possible." Gohan said coldly. "A fundamental idea that any true warrior is taught."

"Don't you lecture me!" Ryazan yelled as he launched off the debris and threw a fist at Gohan.

Gohan dodged the fist and retaliated with a kick that Ryazan dodged by jumping into the air. The half-saiyan followed after him. An angry Ryazan swung his leg out at Gohan, but the kid blocked it with his hands then flipped over it and slammed his feet into Ryazan's face, sending him flying backwards. He then used his super speed to catch up to Ryazan, then to bypass him completely.

He spun around in the air to face the incoming Ryazan and brought his hands above his head, interlocking them together. As soon as Ryazan was close enough, Gohan slammed his hands down onto his chest and sent him crashing back down towards the debris of the Lookout.

***DBZ***

"Yes! That's my boy!" Goku shouted with a pride grin. "Show him what a saiyan warrior can do, Gohan!"

"Your son's taunting seems to have scared Ryazan so much that he isn't in the right state of mind to fight properly anymore." Olibu noted with a frown.

Goku looked over his shoulder at his friend. "Yeah, it's just like what happened with Cell. He got so scared of Gohan that he started to make mistakes that some of my friends made in their battles against him. He knew better, but with all the fear he was feeling, he got desperate and was not thinking straight." He looked back at the crystal ball with a frown as Ryazan picked himself up and launched himself back into the sky at Gohan. "I just hope that Ryazan doesn't try anything desperate like what Cell tried with blowing himself up. Gohan should end this fast."

"Quick and swift like with how he killed Bojack." King Kai agreed. "No toying around."

***DBZ***

Gohan's eyes narrowed in on Ryazan approaching him. His hands fell together at his side in a familiar stance as he started to chant. "Ka….Me…." As he chanted, his ki started to gather up in his hands and Ryazan upon noticing his opponent's ki rising stopped his charge. He slowly floated back down and crossed his hands over each other in front of his chest.

Red-orange ki started to charge up in his own hands. Sparks of ki shot of out of the ball like burning lava. "Burning…"

"Ha….Me…"

Ryazan's own blast had yellow ki starting to wrap around the ki ball. "Inferno!"

"HA!" Gohan screamed as he thrust his hands forward, sending forth a powerful blue ki blast from them at the same time that Ryazan threw his hands away from this chest, sending a blast of red-orange ki that had a yellow spiral of ki wrapped around at Gohan.

In the short distance between the two warriors, the two attacks met and pushed against each other, fighting to overtake the other.

Gohan gritted his teeth as he added more of his power to the attack. The last thing he wanted to do was enter a power struggle like he did with Cell. That was very hard to handle. Of course, back then, he was severely injured saving Vegeta from an attack, but this time, he had half-healed injuries that were burning from the struggle.

No, it wasn't the power struggle.

He felt it the moment he powered up, but he just didn't want to admit it. Dende was right. Ascending to this level was making all the muscles in his body scream out in pain. It felt like his body was being torn apart from the inside out. They were being ripped back open starting from the inside and coming to the weak layer of skin on the outside. If he didn't end this battle soon, he was sure the two closed holes on his torso would tear themselves open to let him bleed out again.

With that thought, Gohan screamed as he added more of his power into his blast. The very action was protested by his burning muscles as more strain was added. He could feel the injuries tearing at the pressure his body was feeling. All his power was pulsating, taking too much out of his weakened body. But he wouldn't regret not letting Dende finish healing him earlier. There was no time for such regrets.

"Die!" Gohan screamed as he overpowered Ryazan's attack and sent the Kamehameha wave right at a shocked Ryazan.

"No!" Ryazan screamed as his attack was overtaken. "I will not be beaten!" He released his attack and threw his arms out to the side. "This is not how it is supposed to go!" As he was screaming this, he blasted his ki out of his body to form a shield.

Gohan's eyes narrowed as his attack hit Ryazan full force and left him blinded for a bit as the attack went flying towards the ground, though he wasn't worried about that. The ki should weaken significantly before it came anywhere near the ground. But his concern was Ryazan. He made a ki shield, but would it do anything? Gohan was sure he put enough power behind that attack that a shield shouldn't stop his attack.

***DBZ***

"Piccolo!" Dende said with a grin.

The Namekian opened his eyes and looked up at Dende who was leaning over him. "Ah, Dende, what happened?"

"Gohan threw you from the Lookout." Krillin replied without taking his eyes off the sky. They reflected the light from a Kamehameha wave that was flying towards the ground. "Gohan has ascended finally."

Piccolo pushed himself up to his feet before glancing over at the unconscious Vegeta who Dende had now moved to heal. He looked back at Krillin with a frown. "You don't sound happy about that, Krillin."

Krillin grimaced as he looked back over at Piccolo. "When Gohan went to save you guys from being killed, he wasn't completely healed yet. His body can't handle the second level with his injuries, according to Dende at least. It will be too much of a strain."

The Namekian stared in surprise before a scowl formed. That stupid kid. He was so concerned about his friends that he left himself open. Gohan was the only hope they had for defeating Ryazan and he knew that, but he still left injured to come save them. It was a move that just screamed stupid. "Damn it, kid." He muttered as he shifted his eyes to the sky.

***DBZ***

"This can't be happening! He was so close." Sarta growled.

**Ryazan floated there, looking a bit worse for wear as his shield wasn't able to protect him completely, but he was still alive. His purple blood dripped from all his limbs and his clothes were tattered. And he looked absolutely furious. **

"It looks like he took a lot of damage though. That should slow him down considerable." Tyron said with a frown as if he wasn't too sure he believed what he just said. "Gohan should be able to…."

"No." Goku said, surprising his friends. "Look at Gohan. He's just as bad as Ryazan."

The warriors looked at the half-saiyan in horror to see that Goku was right. He was holding his stomach with his hand, but it did nothing to stop the blood from gushing out and coating his hands in the sticky liquid.

"What happened?" Olibu asked.

"His injuries weren't healed and the second level along with that ki battle, no matter how short it was, put too much of a strain on his body." Goku explained. "It all became too much and his wounds ripped open."

"So anyone could win at this point?" Pikkon asked.

Goku looked from Ryazan to Gohan with a frown. That was a hard question. He wanted to believe in his son. Gohan always managed to shine in situations like this, but this might be too much for him now. But then again, Ryazan was just as injured and furious at Gohan. Maybe that could cause him to make a mistake which would solidify Gohan's win.

***DBZ***

Gohan found himself closing one of his eyes shut in pain. He wanted to close both and pass out, but he knew he couldn't do that. Ryazan was still alive and glaring at him. He needed to focus on taking him out first. His hands wrapped around the bleeding hole in his stomach with a frown. Sending that powerful attack at Ryazan left a backlash that hit him and the toll of the strain on his body finally exceeded its limit.

Feeling drained and with injuries like this, Gohan knew he couldn't start exchanging blows with Ryazan again. He needed to end this fight NOW!

But how? He put almost all of his energy into that last attack in the desperate hope to kill Ryazan and finally put an end to this battle.

Gohan slowly lifted his hand off his stomach and stared at his blood covered, trembling hand. The more blood he lost, the weaker he was feeling. He didn't have any time to waste.

A last ditch effort was his only chance of winning at this point.

His hands closed into fists before he raised them towards the sky. "I am done with this." Gohan said, glaring down at Ryazan, who was most likely having the same thoughts as Gohan.

"Yes! Let's end this!" Ryazan screamed as he threw his hands out in front of him and towards Gohan. The index and middle finger on his left hand crossed over the ones on his right to make an 'x' and he stretched his thumbs down to touch each other. Through the triangle his fingers made, Gohan was seen. Ki began to gather around in that triangle.

The lightning aura from Gohan's ascended form started to crackle loudly as it traveled up his body to both of his fists raised in the air.

The lightning aura that usually wrapped around Gohan's body was now all condensed into a ki ball in each of his fist, fighting to break out as the lightning crackled wildly around his hands. "Omega." Gohan growled as the ki he gathered in his hand with the lightning aura pulsated harder as it tried to escape his fist. He snapped his two fists together at his wrists and let his hands fall open, fingers spread wide as the lightning aura infused with the red ki in each of his hand fused together.

The ki that was gathering in Ryazan's hands turned into three different colors: red, yellow, and orange as they spun around each other. "Hell's!"

"Breaker!" Gohan screamed as he threw his hands down in front of him like he was doing a Kamehameha wave. A bright red ki blast with a golden lightning infused aura wrapped around it shot out of his hands and right at Ryazan.

"Spiral!" Ryazan shouted as the mix of the three kis was fired out of his hands and straight at Gohan's incoming blast.

***DBZ***

"Omega Breaker?!" Goku asked shocked. "Now what is that?" His eyes scanned the attack his son was using. The golden energy aura that was usually around Gohan was gone so that power was being used as part of the attack.

"You don't know?" Olibu asked surprised.

Goku laughed as Gohan's attack collided with Ryazan's and a power struggle between the two began. "Well, I have been dead for two years. I just didn't expect Gohan to come up with an attack of his own." Not to say he wasn't proud of his son for coming up with his own move. It was amazing and the attack looked awesome, but he didn't think Gohan would want to do that. It must have taken him a long time to come up with it. Creating moves wasn't easy. One wrong move in creating one could be disastrous.

***DBZ***

An intense burn ripped through Gohan's muscles, but he forced himself to ignore it as he poured more and more power into his attack. He couldn't let this attack fail. This was all he had left. If this didn't defeat Ryazan, there was nothing else he could do. All his power was going into this last attack.

His teeth gritted in pain as his pulsating aura that he used for the attack started to go wild and whipped around. It hit his arms, slicing through his skin, but Gohan worked through that pain. He knew something like this would happen. Omega Breaker was a last ditch effort because the attack was incomplete. He only invented it a few months ago, but was never able to perfect it. And using an incomplete attack during battle was a horribly foolish move. In training, the attack could be released as it began to backfire and he could dodge and try again, but here, there was no way for a second chance nor could he release the attack. This attack held all the power he had left and he needed to use it to end Ryazan! So he would take all the pain that came from the backlash as long as it meant the end of Ryazan!

"No! No! No!" Ryazan screamed as he pushed all of his power into his attack. A child was not going to defeat him! He was the last of the Zindart race. He had to survive and carry out his race's legacy. He would be the strongest. He would get his immortality back. He would live forever! But to do that, he first needed to kill this child!

This child who was nothing.

And yet….looking at Gohan, Ryazan felt his heart thump loudly against his chest. The child had a coldly determined expression on his face even as his ki went sporadically out of control and started to hit him. His own ki was burning and cutting him, but Gohan didn't even flinch as he added more of his power into his attack and started pushing Ryazan back.

All of it caused Ryazan to feel sweat pouring down his face. His blood was pumping loudly in his ears. As he gazed upon this child who was being attacked by his energy and yet showed no signs of stopping his attack caused fear to course through every bone, muscles, every drop of blood in his body.

***DBZ***

"What is wrong? Why is his ki backlashing at him?" Goku asked with a frown. His eyes narrowed angrily. "Is he using an incomplete attack?! Didn't Piccolo and I teach him anything?! This is just plain reckless and dangerous!"

"From proud to angry in less than a minute." Mijorin muttered. "I'm not sure how to handle Goku when his son is involved anymore. I didn't think it would be this confusing."

"Just pray the kid wins and then we won't have to be worried about having an enraged father on our hands." Torbie whispered back as he stared warily at Goku.

***DBZ***

Gohan pushed the last of his ki into his attack and finally overpowered Ryazan's blast. Omega Breaker swallowed up all of the ki from Ryazan's attack as it flew forward to hit Ryazan and that was when Gohan finally lost all control he had over the ki in the attack. All the power that was pushed into the attack became wildly out of control that it exploded upon impacting Ryazan and it wasn't small.

Desperately, Gohan threw his arms up over his face to try to protect himself, but a part of him knew it was in vain as he felt the heat of the ki slam into his arms. After the hit came the actual blast of explosion which rippled through the air and set the half-saiyan flying backwards as the feeling of his own ki tore his skin to shreds.

***DBZ***

"It's over." Piccolo said blankly.

"Ryazan is gone." Krillin continued sadly, staring up at the sky. "But I can't sense Gohan's ki either."

"No," Piccolo replied angrily as he powered up and blasted off the tower and towards the destroyed Lookout. "You better not be dead, kid! Please still be hanging on."

**A/N: So I thought about ending the story after the fight with Ryazan, but I decided that wouldn't be much of a story so I am going to continue it and wasn't sure what I wanted to do after Ryazan. So then this brought me to my point. I came up with a story idea I thought would be fun, but I didn't want to start a third DBZ story and the arc I want to write wouldn't really fit with Life of a Saiyan Hybrid so I will be continuing this story for a while. The next chapter will most likely just be a wrap up for the Ryazan fight and chapter 9 should take us into the next arc. And I promise, I won't have another fight that takes 7 chapters to get through. Anyway, I hope you enjoy the future arcs. **

**Please Review! **


	8. Ch8: The ID Watch

**Disclaimer: I don't own DBZ**

**Earth's Protector **

**Chapter 8: The ID Watch **

"Completely destroyed." Piccolo said annoyed as he looked around the debris. Pieces of the Lookout were floating everywhere. He jumped from one piece to the next as he spread his senses around and kept his eyes open for any sight of Gohan. That kid wasn't allowed to die. He should have come up here as soon as he was healed and not stayed back to let Gohan handle the fight alone. That kid had a knack for always getting himself into trouble when he fought.

"Piccolo."

Piccolo turned around to see Krillin land on a piece of rubble.

The human warrior looked around with a frown. "If we can't sense him, he is either dead or his ki is so low that it will be difficult to detect."

"If he is that weak after the battle and with the Lookout destroyed like this," Piccolo trailed off as he and Krillin shared a look of horror.

"Gohan!" Krillin screamed as he powered up, but before he could throw himself towards the ground to go after his little friend, Vegeta suddenly appeared with said kid thrown over his shoulder like a sack of potatoes. Clearly, the saiyan prince thought way ahead of him and Piccolo. At the sight of his little friend whose body was as torn up as his clothes and with blood flowing freely, Krillin felt dread rise up in him. "He's still alive, right?"

"Barely," Vegeta replied, eyes narrowed as he looked out of the corner of them at the unconscious kid that was losing way too much blood. His clothes were torn to shreds and the parts that weren't torn, were burned from ki. His arms were covered in burns and cuts that wouldn't stop bleeding, which meant they matched the holes in his torso that were torn open and bleeding freely.

"Wouldn't it have made more sense to take him to Dende instead of coming all the way up here?" Piccolo asked with a frown.

Vegeta scowled. "I already saved the brat from dying by hitting the ground. Must I do everything?" As he finished speaking, he lifted the kid off his shoulder by the back of his gi and held him out for Piccolo to take.

"Careful," Krillin cautioned, glaring at Vegeta for the rough handling. "He's got enough injuries as it is. We don't need to be making things worse."

"Tch," Vegeta muttered as Piccolo took the half-saiyan from him. "If there is no more trouble, I am taking my leave."

With that said, Vegeta took off in the direction of Capsule Corp, leaving the two conscious Z fighters to watch him leave with frowns.

"He never changes." Krillin said with a frown, but Piccolo didn't reply as he left to fly back down to Korin's Tower to get their young friend healed before he did end up dying from his injuries. Seeing as they just used the dragon balls, if Gohan died now it would be a while before they could wish him back to life. And if that happened, they would have to hide from Chi-Chi for months since none of them would want to explain what happened to her eldest to her.

***DBZ***

Pain. That was all he could feel traveling through his body at the moment. Pain that spread to every inch of his body that was screaming with each breath he took. Each breath he took caused his muscles to expand which pulled at each and every injury on his body. The pain was like fire spreading across his limbs and getting worse with each passing second.

"_Gohan." _

Hearing his name being called, Gohan opened his eyes. Once they were opened, he saw the white ground beneath him as he was sitting cross legged on the ground. Lifting his head found Gohan staring at his father sitting cross legged across from him, looking very serious at his son.

"_Dad?" _Gohan questioned with a frown. _"How are you here?" _He looked around the pure white room they were in that reminded him of the Time Chamber. _"Am I dead?"_

"_No, but it was very close." _Goku frowned at his son and reached forward to thump his son on the head hard enough to make his head bounce from it. _ "Dende is currently healing you. But what were you thinking? Omega Breaker?" _

Gohan frowned and rubbed the back of his head. _"It's my own personal move, Dad." _

"_But to use it while it's incomplete? Do you have any concept of just how reckless that was?" _Goku scowled at his son when he opened his mouth to reply. _"Don't, Gohan, because I know for a fact that Piccolo and I taught you better than to do something as reckless as that." _

The young half-saiyan winced and lowered his hand from his head as a guilty look crossed his face. _"You were watching?"_

"_Of course I was." _Goku smiled at his son. _"Had to make sure you didn't die." _The smile suddenly turned serious once more which had Gohan flinching again. _"But what I didn't expect was to see my son foolishly using an incomplete move that almost caused his death!" _

Hearing the harshness in his dad's voice had Gohan rearing back slightly, which cause more pain to travel through his body at the movement. But it not from fear of his father which had him rearing back in surprise, but because he knew the harshness in his father's voice was coming from his own concern. Bowing his head, the half-saiyan replied, "Sorry, Dad. It was the only thing I could think of. Besides, I've never died before so the dragon balls could bring me back to life so it wasn't really that big of a concern."

"That's not the point, Gohan. If you think, 'I can be wished back to life,' then you will start to do stupid and reckless things while fighting like using an incomplete move." Goku scolded, flicking his son's forehead. "Just because you can be wished back doesn't mean you can be reckless in battle. Your life is more important than even a single death."

Life.

Your life is valuable.

That was the meaning Gohan took from those words and it was what had his eyes flashing from shame at being in trouble to going to anger. "My life is important? More important than giving up my life as I save the Earth?" He asked softly before snapping his head up to look his father in the eye. "And what about you then? How many times have you died in battle? Given up your life for the Earth? I am just doing what you always did, protecting my home!"

"Gohan…" Goku started, but was cut off by his son raising his voice.

"NO! I get it! Life is important and just because we can make a wish to fix things doesn't make it any less valuable. It shouldn't be loss in the first place which is why we fight so hard to protect the Earth but why does that mean you have to pay for it? You say my life is important and you don't want me to die, but so is yours! You did so much to save our friends and me. You gave your life for us, but we could have used the Namekian dragon balls to bring you back. You have friends and family here who want you back. Why should you stay dead to protect the people of Earth when it clearly doesn't stop people from coming here and causing trouble? It may have only been Bojack and Ryazan but it shows that you alone weren't the problem for all the villains."

Goku closed his eyes briefly just to escape those pleading, angry eyes of his son. "It's not….The Earth still has you."

"Just because I am strong doesn't mean I still don't need you! Your family and friends need you, and not just as a fighter to protect the planet! Don't you want to be with us? Do we even really matter to you?" Gohan accused harshly, tears filling his eyes to blur the sight of his father.

Goku's eyes snapped back open in surprise at the accusation from his son. He caught sight of the tears in his son's eyes and felt regret as he knew he was the one to bring his son to tears. It was a shocking sight to see those tears as Gohan rarely cried. A few tears were shed on the battlefield by Gohan, but his son always acted so tough and took any beating he got in battles.

But more than the surprise of seeing those tears in his son's eyes now was the horrified shock that his son thought he didn't matter to Goku. He knew he wasn't around for long periods of time like when he traveled through space after Namek and now he's been gone for two years because he died. But the time he was with his son, he always made sure his son had fun and that he mattered a lot to him.

Before he could speak up and explain to his son just how much he mattered, there was a bright flash of light and then his son was gone….back to Earth.

"You matter so much more than you realize, Gohan." Goku whispered into the empty air.

***DBZ***

Opening his eyes, Gohan found Dende leaning over him, looking relieved as he leaned back to let Gohan sit up. He pat his chest down, looking at the torn and bloody clothes before sighing. "Thanks, Dende." Rubbing his neck, Gohan looked over at Krillin and Piccolo with a smile that hid his stress as he thought about the conversation with his dad. That did not go the way he planned….not that he even had a plan to start with. He never meant to accuse his father of not caring. Maybe seeing him after two years after almost dying just brought forth all the feelings of sadness and pain that he felt when his dad told them two years ago that he was going to stay dead.

While he felt despair back then, Gohan worked past it, but since that day things have changed. For one, he found out his mom was pregnant and then he saw his little brother, Goten. His little brother would never get to meet his dad, and it was partly his fault. If he didn't get so cocky during his fight with Cell and just listened to his father, Goku would still be alive. With that guilt, Gohan just wanted his dad to come back to life and see his second son. It would help ease his guilt about what he did. And the other reason he wanted his dad alive again, besides just wanting to see his father again and having fun with him, he could honestly say he didn't want to be the Earth's protector. He took up the mantle since he was the strongest warrior with his father gone, but really, he didn't want to fight dangerous battles like that. More than anything, he just wanted to have fun. He liked training in martial arts and sparring with his dad and friends. He liked studying, but at times, he felt his mother was pushing him too hard. He wanted his dad back so he can help him protect the Earth and he could have more free time to just play.

Perhaps that was a bit selfish, but he just missed having his dad around to help him out and to go fishing with him and to help him sneak out of the house when his mom was making him study too much.

"Gohan."

Waking up from his thoughts, Gohan looked over at Piccolo with a curious smile. "Yeah?"

"You destroyed the Lookout."

Gohan blinked. "What?" Thinking back to that fight, sure he destroyed some walls and pillars, but that was it. "But I didn't blow it to pieces. That was probably Vegeta. Oh?" He looked up in mock realization. "Ryazan's ship! We shouldn't just leave it down on the ground. I should take it to Bulma." He flew out of the tower, waving back to his friends. "Good luck with your destroyed Lookout issue!"

And after that, he blasted towards the ground, just barely escaping having to help deal with the Lookout. No offense to his friends, any other time, he might want to help with that issue, but he was really tired from the fight and now had a mental strain as he thought about the argument he just had with his father.

Landing on the ground, Gohan tilted his head as he looked at the spaceship. It reminded him of the saiyan space pod with the fact that it was designed to only fit one person. That made it easier to deliver to Bulma then since it was smaller, but it would still look for him to deliver something this size to Capsule Corp. Well, it was weird for him to be landing in her yard for all to see anyway so he wouldn't even worry about it.

With that decided, he awkwardly lifted the ship up and took off into the sky.

***DBZ***

Finally arriving at Capsule Corp., Gohan lowered the spaceship on the ground before sensing for Bulma's energy and heading inside to talk to her. He followed her energy to her lab where she was bouncing Trunks on her lap, only looking up when Gohan came in.

"Hey Gohan." Bulma smiled at him. "Vegeta beat you here and told me everything ended well."

Gohan raised a brow. "Except for the fact that Vegeta blew up the Lookout in the battle. But other than that, everything ended just fine." He looked down at his clothes and patted them out. "Just ignore the look of my clothes."

"You can change your clothes here before you head home. I'm sure you don't want your mother to see you like that." Bulma offered.

The half-saiyan nodded in thanks. "Oh, and I brought you a spaceship. It is Ryazan's so you might want to take a look at that."

A flash of interest entered Bulma's eyes as Gohan expected since he knew how interested she was in studying all the different tech they found, whether it be alien tech or android tech. "Sounds good. Thanks, Gohan."

Nodding his head, Gohan left the lab to go shower and change. He did not need his mother fainting when she saw him covered in blood and ripped clothes. She would know something was up when he came home in different clothes, but he figured she already knew something was wrong since Krillin went to his house to pick up the dragon balls he had there. But it was still best she didn't see the outcome of the battle.

It was lucky for Gohan that Bulma let him keep clothes here in case he ever needed a quick change.

After a quick shower to remove the grime and blood, Gohan was in the guest room pulling on his new outfit which consisted of loose black pants, a red tank top with a short sleeve black jacket, fingerless dark blue gloves, and a pair of black boots with red buckle straps.

With his outfit all put together, Gohan left the guestroom to head back to the lab. Along the way, as he met no one, Gohan found himself frowning and scratching the back of his head as his mind began to wander to his conversation with his father again. Just thinking back on that conversation, he wanted to berate himself. After two years he was able to see his dad again, but instead of taking the time to talk with him, he yelled at him for abandoning them.

But he was just so frustrated at it all. Fighting battles to the death was not how he wanted to spend his life. He just wanted to go out and play, to have fun once in a while. Just because he had the power didn't mean he desired to be the savior. He did it because his father left the role to him and trusted him to keep the Earth safe, but that didn't mean he had to enjoy those battles.

Perhaps he was just highly irritated at the thought of being Earth's protector at the moment because he just barely got through a highly dangerous battle alive.

Sometimes he just wished he could escape the responsibilities that were thrust onto him.

Reentering Bulma's lab, Gohan looked around to see that she was gone. Scratching his head, the half-saiyan shrugged and walked into the lab. Walking past Bulma's tables, he ran his hand over them as he looked at the inventions that were resting on them.

One item in particular caught his eye which had him stopping to pick it up to get a closer look at it. Looking over the gray watch, Gohan admired the different buttons and dials on it before slipping it onto his wrist. "I wonder if this is the Micro Band that Bulma told me she made as a teenager." Turning his wrist over, Gohan took another look at the red and blue buttons on it. "But I don't think hers had a screen like this." He mumbled to himself as he read the numbers on the square screen that didn't really make any sense to him.

Gohan took a quick look over at the lab door then back at his wrist with a curious look. "My honed warrior instincts are saying don't touch it." He said as he stared down at the button. "But my teenage instincts are screaming at me to press it." The half-saiyan tapped his chin in thought. He knew it would be irresponsible to press the button since he wasn't sure if it was the micro band, but he also knew that for once he wanted to do something that wasn't responsible and maybe just a tiny bit reckless. Something, after the conversation with his deceased father, he knew Goku would disprove of since it was reckless. But after fighting with his father, he just wanted to rebel against him, even if he wasn't about to see it. "Ah, screw it. Teenage instincts it is."

With that decided, Gohan hit the red button on the side of the watch and observed as the buttons on the screen spun like crazy through every number.

Before Gohan could even process the fact that this clearly wasn't the micro band, an aura mixed of the colors blue and gold surrounded him and he was suddenly gone from the lab. In a blink of an eye, he went from seeing the lab to suddenly seeing a shining vortex all around that he was flying through.

He didn't get any time to observe the vortex since he was suddenly falling through the sky before he was slamming through tree branches until he hit the ground. A groan escaped the half-saiyan as he rolled over onto his hands and knees.

"Ow," Gohan mumbled, rubbing the back of his head as he looked around the forest he fell into. "I wonder if that is what Instant Transmission feels like without the control. Where am I anyway?" He glared down at his wrist where the watch was. "Clearly you aren't a Micro Band. So what, do you just transport people to other places? Seems like too much trouble to make something like that when we can fly pretty fast."

Gohan blinked before glaring even more at the watch. "First I am talking to myself and now I am talking to the watch like it can reply. I have clearly lost my mind." Sighing, Gohan sat himself on the ground and lifted his wrist up to his eyes to look more closely at the watch that he took from Bulma's lab. "You know, I kind of knew you weren't a Micro Band. There is no reason why Bulma would have that sitting out. I guess I just took you since I was upset and just wanted to do something to act out. Being transported to a random forest was not what I had in mind though."

Sighing again, Gohan pushed the red button on the watch this time. "Maybe this will undo what was just done…." A holographic screen popped out of the face of the watch. "Nope, not even close." He sighed. "So….what is it now?"

An icon flashed in the middle of the screen that looked like a speaker before it moved to the corner of the screen.

"Welcome, avid traveler, and congratulations on being chosen to beta test the ID Watch." A soft robotic voice said making Gohan stare in disbelief at the holographic screen.

"Dear Kami what did I take from Bulma?" Gohan groaned as he rubbed his head. Maybe he was being a bit too reckless and stupid today. He was totally going to blame this on Ryazan when he got back….from wherever this was.

"I am sure Ms. Bulma already explained the basics to you, but I will go over them again."

Gohan groaned again. When Bulma found out he took this without permission, she was going to kill him. Then again, maybe if he just got back to her lab and put it back before she noticed….

"The ID Watch, shortened for Interdimensional Travel Watch,"

At that point, Gohan just stared blankly at the watch, praying that he did not just hear what he just heard. Interdimensional Travel? That was simply not possible. Bulma creating a time machine was one thing, but traveling through dimensions? There were such things called LIMITS!

"Allows you to travel to another dimension. So allow me to be the first to welcome you to this new dimension! I am your personal Artificial Intelligence to assist you in this dimension. You may call me AI. "

Gohan glared at the watch, feeling as if it was mocking him for stealing the watch and getting stuck in this situation.

"Now, allow me to explain how the watch works." On the holographic screen an image of the watch appeared which moved around to show the red button with an arrow pointing at it. "The red button will open up this holographic screen allowing me to assist you with any questions you have with visuals. I can also appear on the face of the watch if you simply say my name and I can assist you with what you need."

A brow raised in surprise as Gohan looked at the watch on his wrist. It looked like such a simple piece of technology. How did Bulma make something like this?

The arrow moved to point at the blue button. "This here will allow you to travel through dimension. To change where you go," the image on the screen spun to the other side of the watch to show a silver dial. "Simply change the time settings with this dial. Currently you are located in an unknown dimension on the day June 28, year 769. Current time is 3:37."

"Well, at least it is the same day as it was in my dimension." Gohan muttered. "AI, how do I return to my dimension?"

The screen changed from an image of the watch to an image of a teenaged girl with silver hair and lifeless red eyes that popped onto the screen. "That is currently impossible." She replied in the same monotone, robotic voice. "The ID Watch is powered by a dilithium crystal. It is a powerful crystal, but traveling to another dimension takes up a lot of energy. It is not like the time machine which can make two trips before needing recharged since the energy source for the ID Watch is smaller. Only one trip can be made by the dilithium crystal at a time before it needs time to be recharged or if time is not available, it can be replaced by another dilithium crystal and reused immediately."

One trip? One trip at a time? Why would Bulma let someone use the ID Watch when it was one trip at a time? Unless she had a spare dilithium crystal lying around to give the user so they could get back faster. But that didn't matter since he didn't have the crystal!

"Ai," Gohan started slowly, already knowing he was going to hate the coming answer. "How long will it take the dilithium crystal to gather up enough energy to make the ID Watch usable again?"

"Roughly estimated anywhere from two to two and a half months." Ai replied. "Possibly longer if my calculations are incorrect."

Gohan about choked on the air he was breathing. He was expecting worse, but that amount of time to wait was still pretty bad. He was stuck in an unknown dimension for at least two months! Who knew what kind of trouble was just waiting out here for him?

**A/N: Hope you guys enjoyed the chapter! Before I go I want to say that Gohan traveled to another dimension, but it is not going to be like the other Universes in Dragon Ball Super. I made this dimension arc to visit some enemies we are familiar with. Some authors like to write AUs in which the characters meet the enemies under different scenarios. For example, I remember a story I liked where Goku leaves with Raditz and has amnesia but they come back to Earth and meet Gohan who is already a super saiyan and he helps them defeat Frieza after much tension between them. I wanted to do an arc where Gohan knows everyone, but things are way different than how he dealt with it. I thought it would be fun. Anyway, the point of this is that I don't want you guys to expect any of the characters from the different universes in Super to appear in this because I don't watch DB Super so I don't really know anything about the characters and it would kind of ruin what I have planned. Other than that, I hope you guys enjoy this arc. I don't know how often I will be updating since I got a new job and it is going to be keeping me busy. **


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